Banknote exporter Securency has been involved in a scandal in Vietnam after discovery of payments totalling at least $10 million in commissions for work described as “primarily” translation.
In 2002, Reserve Bank subsidiary Securency won a contract to supply polymer notes to Vietnam. Added to the scandal is the fact their local agent, the Company For Technology and Development (CFTD), employs the son of the governor of the State Bank of Vietnam.
Fairfax paper The Age reported that a 2007 Vietnamese Government corruption inquiry into the deal found it to be “irregular”, lacking in transparency and harmful to the reputation of the bank governor, Le Duc Thuy, and that several Securency agents worldwide have been previously implicated in corruption inquiries.
The paper revealed that Securency has also paid agent commissions into offshore tax haven accounts.
Ron Marchant, Asia manager for Securency, said all their agents were recommended by the Australian embassy: “We get a list of people who they believe we we can work with in reputable organisations and then we would go through the process of investigating or evaluating them and we make a decisions.”
In Vietnam, he said they chose CFTD based on”the recommendation from the Australian embassy” and “our own evaluation”.
Securency is currently under investigation by the Australia Federal Police.
