AIRASIA co-founders Tony Fernandes and Kamarudin Meranun have been cleared of any wrongdoing in relation to the Airbus kickback scandal.
BDO Governance Advisory Sdn Bhd, which had undertaken an independent review of the duo said the company has a robust aircraft procurement process and that the acquisition of aircraft was “justifiable and at prices favourable to the company.”
It added that the sponsorship of the sports team by Airbus was disclosed to and supported by the board of directors of AirAsia at the relevant time.
Fernandes and Kamarudin have been reinstated, respectively, as AirAsia group chief executive officer and executive chairman.
AirAsia Group Bhd and AirAsia X Bhd today reported the findings of the internal inquiry in separate bourse filings.
Last month, Fernandes and Kamarudin temporarily stepped pending the inquiry and until such a time as their return was deemed fit by the company
They were at the time re-designated as non-executive members of the board.
This came after UK court documents revealed that two AirAsia executives were paid US$50 million (RM204 million) by Airbus in exchange for sales contracts.
The budget airline has denied the allegations, including that aircraft order agreements were linked to the sponsorship of a sports team related to AirAsia executives.
The agreement in the UK is part of a global settlement action for bribery, in which the aircraft manufacturer has agreed to pay US and French authorities €3.6 billion (RM17 billion) over the next three years to avoid prosecution.
In its findings, BOD Governance said the sports team sponsorship deal showed demonstrable benefits to the AirAsia group and was not linked to any purchase decisions by AirAsia.
It added that both Fernandes and Kamarudin had properly disclosed their interests to the AirAsia board and abstained from discussions or decisions relating to the said sponsorships.
“The report has now been presented to and accepted by the board (which conducted its meeting without the presence of the two executives) and arising from this, the board has resolved to reinstate the executive positions of Tan Sri Anthony Francis Fernandes and Datuk Kamarudin Meranun,” AirAsia said in its bourse filing.
“Consequently, the appointment of Tarumalingam Kanalingam (Bo Lingam) as the acting CEO has been rescinded.” – March 20, 2020.
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