How long did Rio Tinto know employees were guilty?
After a long period of time of making it look like China had trumped up the charges against the four Rio Tinto (ASE:RIO) employees, it looks like Rio Tinto knew they were guilty of the charges as long as six months ago.
Some may have wondered why Rio Tinto and Australia backed away from pursuing the matter so strongly, and I think if this is true, and it seems it is, this is the underlying reason.
What's somewhat ugly about this is Rio continued to allow the farce to play out on the global scene while knowing for some time their employees had indeed engaged in the actions they were accused of, according to the Independent (UK).
Many reports in the media, especially over the last several days have placed China in a negative light over the event, assuming the four accused were innocent, and the move by China one of retaliation for a failed business deal.
If this is all true, than it is a poor reflection on the type of company Rio Tinto is to allow this to play out for so long without bringing out the truth, and allowing China's name to be dragged through the mud.
There are of course problems in China, but we need to focus on real ones, not ones made up by the media based on a company that lost control of its people and failed to have internal controls in place to siphon out these types of actions before they get too far along.
In other words, it's Rio that seems to be incompetent in this matter, and their reputation is the one that should take a big hit for allowing it to continue on.
So is Rio Tinto under China's thumb now? Absolutely, in the sense Rio was caught in a circumstance which makes them look bad and operationally and ethically inept. That could be a competitive advantage to China, and may be the reason a number of deals have been struck between Australia and other Chinese mining companies recently.
No comments:
Post a Comment