Bangkok - Thailand has launched a probe into the bribery case
brought by British authorities against jet engine maker Rolls-Royce
that involved Thai Airways International's purchase of aircraft
engines, the country's National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC)
told dpa Thursday.
On Tuesday, British newspaper The Guardian reported that the
engineering giant admitted in the high court to having paid bribes
worth millions of pounds in six countries, including Thailand.
Rolls-Royce agreed in 1991 to pay 18.8 million dollars to "regional
intermediaries" including government officials and Thai Airways
employees, the BBC reported, citing a reporting from Britain's
Serious Fraud Office (SFO).
The intermediaries "were expected to act in Rolls-Royce's favour with
respect to a purchase by Thai Airways of T800 engines."
The company apologized for the cases and its CEO Warren East said the
behaviour was "completely unacceptable."
"The past practices that have been uncovered do not reflect the
manner in which Rolls-Royce does business today," East said. "We now
conduct ourselves in a fundamentally different way. We have zero
tolerance of business misconduct of any sort."
The NACC's foreign affairs office told dpa the independent anti-graft
agency had launched a preliminary investigation into the issue in
parallel with Thai Airways' fact finding mission.
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The next step was to seek the SFO's cooperation in gathering more
information on the case, the NACC said.
On Wednesday, Thai Airways International chief Charamporn
Jotikasthira said the airline had set up a panel to look into the
matter and find individuals who were involved in the engine
acquisition process, the Bangkok Post reported.
Thailand ranked 76th in the world in the 2015 Corruption Perception
Index by Transparency International, an international
non-governmental organization, which said Thailand had a "serious
corruption level".
Rolls-Royce is one of the world's leading producers of engines for
large civil aircraft and corporate jets.