Scotland-based oil and gas services company International Tubular Services, a wholly-owned subsidiary of drilling contractor and service provider Parker Drilling, last week agreed to pay a £170,000 ($267,000) fine to Scotland’s Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service’s civil recovery unit to resolve charges that a former Kazakhstan-based employee paid bribes to secure contractual work from a customer in that country.

Parker Drilling discovered the bribery and corruption as part of its compliance and due diligence procedures when it was acquiring International Tubular Services (ITS) last year. Following an investigation into the questionable conduct, ITS self-reported the corrupt payments to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service under the self-reporting initiative of the U.K. Bribery Act.

“In appropriate circumstances, the self-reporting initiative allows for companies to accept their involvement in corrupt practices, put in place effective systems to prevent it from recurring, and repay the illegitimate profits,” Linda Hamilton, Head of the Civil Recovery Unit, said in a statement.

Parker Drilling has since “taken steps to implement comprehensive anti-bribery policies and training to ensure that no unlawful conduct will take place in the future,” the Crown Office stated.

Furthermore, “ITS has been advised by the Crown Office that it will not be subject to a criminal prosecution in relation to the conduct that was identified in the self-report,” a spokeswoman for Parker Drilling told Energy Voice, a daily news service for the energy sector.

The funds from the $267,000 fine represent the total profit made under the corrupt contract in Kazakhstan, according to the Crown Office. “In view of any criminal investigation of others that may follow, it is not possible to provide any further details of the corrupt payments,” the Crown Office stated.

Topics