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“Business as normal” for Citiraya despite Singapore probe

Electronics recycling firm Citiraya has said it is “business as normal”, despite the investigation being undertaken by authorities in Singapore in the company's global headquarters.

Shares in Citiraya Industries Ltd were temporarily suspended from the Singapore stock exchange at the end of January as investigations were mounted by the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau and the Commercial Affairs Department.


” There has been no hint that the UK business will be affected one way or the other.“
– Tom Meney, Citiraya

The company has since appointed an independent investigator to look into the matter on behalf of Citiraya, and on Friday revealed that its chief executive, chief financial officer and assistant general manager had gone on “unrecorded leave” so that they could “provide their fullest assistance” to the authorities.

Initial investigations had revealed that “certain materials sent to the company by some of its customers may have been dealt with by certain employees of the company otherwise than in accordance with the company's procedures and processes”, a statement from Citiraya said.

UK
In the UK, Citiraya has been recycling electronics including CRT glass, batteries, plastics and metals for about four years on its 12,000 sq ft site in Irvine.

Commenting on the developments, Citiraya's vice president of marketing in the UK, Tom Meney, told letsrecycle.com that business was “as normal”. But, he said information about the investigation itself was being “tightly controlled”.

Mr Meney said: “Business goes on as normal – we don't know the impact of the investigation at the moment. There has been no hint that the UK business will be affected one way or the other.”

Wales
Citiraya opened a new CRT recycling plant in Hirwaun, Wales, last month (see letsrecycle.com story), a project that has been promised funding by the Welsh Development Agency and the Welsh Assembly government.

The Welsh Development Agency has said that the investigation in Singapore would not impact on the Hirwaun project, while the Welsh Assembly government has said the grant for the plant was dependent on “stringent conditions”.

The spokesman for the Assembly government told letsrecycle.com: “We have a list of stringent conditions that any company must meet to ensure the sustainability of the project. We have not given Citiraya any money yet, but have been assured by the company that the Asian investigations will not have any impact on their UK operations.”

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