Galfar Engineering, an Omani construction firm, said today that its board would meet to discuss plans to ensure that its operations were not impacted by a court judgment handed down on Sunday against two of its employees for corruption.
Galfar’s managing director, Mohammed Ali, and a former business development manager, Abdullmajeed Nushad, were handed jail terms of three and two years and ordered to pay fines worth 600,000 rials (Dh5.7m) and 200,000 rials respectively by an Omani court.
The verdict was the first in a trial process which involves more than 20 government officials and private executives from Oman’s oil industry and related sectors, on trial on charges of offering or accepting bribes in exchange for contracts, mostly in infrastructure projects.
“The Board of Directors of the company will convene an urgent board meeting to review the situation and formulate an urgent action plan to ensure that the company’s operations are not affected by the said primary court’s judgement,” Galfar said in a bourse filing today.
The statement added that the defence lawyers would be appealing the judgment.
Galfar’s shares slumped in the opening minutes of trading, down 6.5 per cent.
business@thenational.ae
