There has been more development since the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) officers seized several documents and files related to Alcatel Lucent (ALU) in January.
If you have not been following this news, read here & here.
TheStar today reported that both Axiata Group Bhd(Celcom) and Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM) have barred Alcatel-Lucent from participating in tenders, contracts or joint ventures for a year following the call from Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).
In the news report, Axiata said the suspension runs for 12 months from Feb 18 while TM’s suspension was effective Jan 5.
Opinion:
It is a logical move for TM & Axiata to “punish” Alcatel-Lucent(ALU) in this case. However if the claims by ALU are true(bribes), then the MACC shouldn’t hesitate to take action against TM and Axiata too.
I strongly believe that the penalty shouldn’t just be imposed by TM & Axiata only, ALU should be blocked from doing business in this country for the next 1 year.
And since this corruption case did just happen in Malaysia(Costa Rica, Honduras, Taiwan too), all ALU’s existing clients(Astro, Packet One & Fibrerail) in Malaysia should be investigated as well to ensure that there’s no corruption in place.
Unless they(MACC) want to wait for the corruption to happen first?
