(Bloomberg) -- The U.K. government plans to ask global consultancy Bain & Co. about findings by a South African judicial commission that the company engaged in alleged corruption.
The panel, headed by Acting Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, released a report last month implicating Bain in misconduct related to work it did for the South African Revenue Service.
“The Cabinet Office will shortly be writing to the company and engaging with them to better understand the status of the findings in the report and seek appropriate assurances to the government,” Stephen Barclay, the minister for the office, said in a written response this week to a Jan. 5 letter from lawmaker Peter Hain.
In the letter, Hain asked Prime Minister Boris Johnson to freeze all government contracts with Bain while South African prosecutors try to recoup money paid to the Boston-based company under its contract with the tax agency.
“I am aware of the seriousness of the situation,” Johnson said in a Jan. 28 response to Hain, in which he undertook to get the Cabinet Office to urgently look into the matter. “Corruption has the ability to erode trust and undermine public confidence and it should rightly be challenged,” Johnson said.
Bain has denied willfully facilitating or being party to corruption in South Africa. The company didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment sent by email on Thursday morning.
Barclay assured Hain that Bain is currently not a strategic supplier to the U.K. government or doing any substantial work for it. Hain is a peer for the opposition Labour Party and a former cabinet minister.
Bloomberg has contacted the Cabinet Office for comment.
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