TeliaSonera Says No Evidence of Bribery at its Uzbekistan Subsidiary

Published on: 1st Feb 2013

­TeliaSonera has announced that an investigation has been unable to find any evidence supporting allegations of bribery and money laundering in Uzbekistan that emerged last September.

But the report did criticize the company for poor checks when dealing with countries known to have high levels of corruption.

The law firm Mannheimer Swartling was assigned to make an outside assessment of the allegations that TeliaSonera's investment in a 3G license, frequencies and number blocks in Uzbekistan in 2007 involved corruption or money laundering. Later, the investigation was expanded to include more recent investments in connection with TeliaSonera's operations in Uzbekistan.

Although the main allegations were deemed to be unfounded, the investigation did however raise serious criticism at TeliaSonera for shortcomings in the investment process and concludes that not enough effort was made to investigate neither the local partner in Uzbekistan, nor how the local partner could hold the rights which were later transferred. 

TeliaSonera's own internal controls were not sufficient to ensure that it did not risk becoming involved in any unethical business, and that thereby its internal ethical guidelines were not followed completely.

TeliaSonera's Board has stated that its conclusion is that the investments were not carried out in a satisfactory manner.

In a statement, the company said that "in hindsight, it is evident that a more stringent investigation of the counterparties should have been conducted. One consequence of this was that subsequent investments were also not subjected to proper examination. The Board concurs with and shares Mannheimer Swartling's criticism."

Subsequent to the allegations and the investigations it sparked, the company has revamped its procedures and started working with a number of human rights groups that are active in the region.

 

Tags: [teliasonera]  [Sweden]  [Uzbekistan]