 "UK Fraud Office probes Tata Steel")
The UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has opened an investigation into Tata Steel over allegations related to certificates used to verify the composition of products.
Tata Steel, which is seeking to sell its UK businesses, referred itself to the fraud office after an internal audit that suggested inappropriate testing and certification.
On Friday, the company said the matter was related to events in 2015 when, during an internal audit, inappropriate testing and certification procedures were identified at its South Yorkshire-based Speciality Steels.
Speciality Steels produces around 225,000 tonnes of steel, comprising around three per cent of Tata Steel Europe’s total output.
The company said its UK unit not only proactively notified accreditation and certification bodies, including the SFO, but also had a detailed dialogue with them. “These investigations have confirmed the thoroughness and adequacy of Tata Steel’s response, risk assessment and disclosure programme and no accreditation has been withdrawn from speciality steels,” the company stated.
Apart from the authorities, the company said it informed over 450 direct and 150 indirect customers and there had been no recalls of the material in service.
According to reports, the documents being examined by SFO affected 500 customers, including global giants like BAE and Rolls-Royce. A Rolls-Royce spokesperson said: “We were made aware of an issue by Tata last year. We have not been contacted by the SFO and cannot comment on any investigation”.
At least nine employees of the company were suspended after the auditors found that inappropriate testing and certification may have occurred.
So far, there is no suggestion that the information on the certificates has led to any safety concerns. A trading standards investigation is also taking place, but it is unknown whether the two probes are linked in any manner.
A London-based spokeswoman for the SFO declined to comment on the report.
The steelmaker last week said it’s considering the sale of its unprofitable UK division, citing global oversupply and high costs that mean trading conditions in the UK and Europe have deteriorated.
UK business secretary Sajid Javid flew down to Mumbai earlier this week to hold talks with Tata group chairman Cyrus Mistry in an attempt to find a solution that would help save the nearly 15,000 jobs on the line. It is believed a deal to save Tata’s Scunthorpe plant can be reached as early as Monday with UK-based investment firm Greybull Capital.
Meanwhile, Indian-origin businessman and founder of the Liberty Group Sanjeev Gupta on Friday formally took charge of Tata Steel’s loss making plants in Scotland.
Gupta, who has also expressed an interest in acquiring Tata’s embattled Welsh unit of Port Talbot, hailed the “fresh chapter” in efforts to begin work on the re-opening and recovery of the two mothballed steel plate operations at Dalzell and Clydebridge in Lanarkshire, negotiations for which began last November.
Its plan is counter to the current UK steel industry, which relies on the import of iron ore and coal from far flung corners of the globe, the firm said. Founded in 1992, the Group has turnover approaching $7 billion with net assets of $1 billion. In the medium term, Liberty wants to create an end-to-end process that starts with the melting of UK recovered scrap steel and continues through the manufacture and distribution of high-quality downstream steel products.
Liberty Steel, part of the Liberty House, which is part of the Gupta Family Group (GFG) Alliance, is a global metals and industrials business trading in 30 countries and operating from international hubs in London, Dubai, Singapore and Hong Kong.
