Should companies be allowed to change their names to rebadge themselves when confronted with corruption allegation?

Interestingly, CIMIC was formed by an Englishman Leighton in Australia yet it is a Spanish governed multinational company. This is where it gets confusing.  Obvious questions arise in respect of name change as another form of deception.

I recall the last time I heard the words ‘name change’ by Scott Ritter (former weapons inspector, Iraq).  The name changed (person in change) instead of regime changing given corruption (or by democratic removal).  It appears to be a defence strategy to change those in authority (not complying) rather than the ethics of a regime engaged in crimes against humanity.

I was concerned to read about Leighton involvement in bribery in respect of the Iraq oil pipeline, I reflected on the Bush/Carlyle/Halliburton ring involved there, that is today flushing up war crimes. I am sure the police would be mapping this out. The wicked webs we weave as ‘business as usual’ is increasingly not about ethics but blind profits in the corporate interest rather than the public interest.  This is due to no real oversight or ethics enforced as many are doing this it is normalised as how deals are done.  Other issues include government tax funds leaving the country as profits; this reveals another consequence of awarding government contracts to overseas multinationals with no allegiance to Australia’s future (fund).

There needs to be authentic public oversight or Anti-Corruption Commission to ensure ethics, accountability and visibility that is not camouflaged by name change to cover corruption and refresh it (like a frozen screen, rabbit in headlights) to confuse the public and authorities and keep on with business-as-usual (that is where that term came from).

What I note is business corruption becomes a cost/benefit equation that profits as fines or consequences are worth the risk from a risk management point of view rather than a lesson to be learned and a consequence to experience, as one would teach children.  Instead just change the name seems to be the swan song and all forget about it. I smile.

I note another Spanish firm Hochtief mentioned below.  That would be worth investigating.

Here is the Department of Foreign Affairs link:

https://dfat.gov.au/geo/spain/pages/spain-country-brief.aspx

Note: Trade/country relationships appear in that order, rather than formal diplomatic relationships to exchange culture, social and trade as international relations.  It is evident how the corporate/government nexus is deeply embedded.  In the link below is unexpected defence relationships. I am so out of touch with global business but I am jumping back int that pond to have a look at what is reflected from the light of my inquiries as I follow the threads.

Here is an excerpt from the link above, it provides insights – investment is where to look as to the depth of our business relationships.

In 2016-17, Spain was Australia’s 26th largest goods and services trading partner, with total trade reaching $3.4 billion. Australian merchandise exports to Spain were valued at $697 million, and included coal, other ores and concentrates, fruit and nuts, and electronic integrated circuits. Australian imports from Spain in 2016-17 stood at $2 billion, with the biggest import items being passenger motor vehicles, medicaments (including veterinary), fixed vegetable oils and fats, and rubber tyres, treads and tubes. Also in 2016-17, Australia’s trade in services with Spain totaled $623 million; $342 million in exports and $281 million in imports.

See also the section on ‘Defence Cooperation’.

Investment

In 2016, Spain’s investment in Australia was valued at $948 million. Spanish companies are increasingly significant players in the infrastructure, water and energy sectors in Australia. Many of Spain’s largest infrastructure companies have a presence in Australia.

Significant contracts awarded to Spanish companies in Australia since 2015 include:

• Transport infrastructure projects:
  • CAF — Canberra and Newcastle light rail.
  • ACS — Sydney M5 motorway.  (ACS is CIMIC)
    refer http://www.exteriores.gob.es/Embajadas/CANBERRA/en/Noticias/Pages/Articulos/20160518_NOT1.aspx  (note in this Spanish Embassy release that ACS is not referred to as Spanish)
  • Acciona-Ferrovial — Toowoomba Second Range Crossing.
  • OHL — Pacific Highway upgrade.
• Renewable energy generation projects:
  • Elecnor — Barcaldine and Moree solar photovoltaic plants in Queensland and NSW, and, first and second phases of the Bungala Solar photovoltaic park project in South Australia – the largest photovoltaic project under construction to date in Australia.
  • Gas Natural Fenosa — Crookwell windfarm in NSW.
  • Acciona — Mt Gellibrand wind farm in Victoria.

Australian investment in Spain was worth $5.1 billion in 2016. Major Australian investments in Spain are in a diverse range of sectors, including financial services and energy, mining, education, petroleum and gas storage and distribution and car parking infrastructure.

Australian manufacturers have also had success in Spain. In 2017, Western Australian shipbuilding company Austal Ltd won a contract worth $190 million for two high-speed trimaran ferries to operate in Spain’s Canary Islands.

More economic and trade information can be found in the Spain Country Fact Sheet [PDF 171 KB].

The Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade) is the Australian Government’s trade and investment promotion agency. Austrade helps Australian companies succeed in international business, promotes and markets Australian education internationally, develops tourism policy and research to grow Australia’s tourism industry and attracts productive foreign investment into Australia. Austrade has an office in Madrid, responsible for Spain and Portugal.

Austrade’s priorities in Spain form part of its broader strategy for developing Australia’s trade and investment relationship with Western Europe. These include: digital industrialisation (such as autonomous driving, robotics and automation); advanced maritime and defence technology and manufacturing; smart cities infrastructure and technology; work-oriented training and borderless learning; and, renewable energy, power generation and storage technologies. Some of these initiatives are predominantly designed to attract further European investment into Australia, while others are more focused on opportunities for Australian companies to participate in global value chains and/or innovation eco-systems in Europe.

The Australia-Spain Business Association is headquartered in Madrid, with branches in Barcelona and Santiago de Compostela (Galicia). The Spanish Government and Catalan regional Government maintain trade promotion offices in Sydney, where the Spanish-Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, La Camara, promotes business relationships within the Spanish-Australian business community. The Spain-Australia Council Foundation board consists of several key Spanish companies with a presence in Australia such as Acciona, Navantia, Ferrovial and Indra.

I note Jon Anderson on Australia’s ABC QandA talked about the public losing trust, when I read about the Canberra Light rail as a statement put out by the Spanish Embassy and see name changes and companies not fully disclosed as Spanish it creates in my mind the impression of deception and corruption which is reinforced by Leighton’s shenanigans.

Is this is the type of relationship that is in the public interest and I include the Spanish people here, as they, like the Australian people would not have a clue. We live in different worlds.

This is another informative link and questions arise about the hard working Australian staff, Austrlian interests, business deals, management restructure, cultural tensions, disagreements, takeovers, toxic relationships and men in the business of ‘greed’ and the great instability it causes.  I think of those who pioneered companies and their sorrow when the copany is lost and their job is gone.  Busines slike war has winners and losers and it is aggressive.  I wouldn’t survive 5 minutes in corporate cultures as I would care about the people and honour agreements.  I would never alllow myself to change to be like corporate raiders or indeed raiders of the lost arc.  https://www.smh.com.au/business/how-leighton-was-lost-20140314-34sdv.html

Here is a quote from the link above:

In some ways the relationship between Leighton, Hochtief and Spain’s Grupo ACS can be likened to Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, which is about a quest to conquer Middle Earth by controlling one ring that rules the other rings of power.

Leighton is controlled by Hochtief, a German company, which in turn is controlled by ACS – a Spanish contracting giant with operations in five continents. But Leighton is the prize asset of the bunch – it contributes more than 90 per cent of Hochtief’s earnings and 40 per cent of ACS’ group earnings.

I see the corporate raiders as ‘Gollum’.  He was once a man and the greed transfixed him, the evil seduced him, controlled him as he worshipped it, caressed it, would die for it, his precious, such was his jealous need. He was no longer human as the ring slowly destroyed him as it cared for no-one only returning to its master, the dark side. There is truth in this.

Thus my friends this is how greed works and operates whilst our planet slowly collapses ecologically, societies breakdown as the public funds are raided by amarda’s of pirates looting without any sense of responsibility or concern for those they harm and the world’s they leave behind.

I would rather have nothing but my integrity.  I would never go for the money as I know the symbolic Hobbits are innocent and true, and this is why they are entrusted with the one ring.  They are not insecure or weak, they can’t be transformed as goodness and selflessness is who they are and this is the real armour (needs no armada) that shields them in dark times.

It is only the truth that sets all free to be happy.

https://www.smh.com.au/business/leighton-to-change-name-to-cimic-in-wake-of-corruption-allegations-20150320-1m40j3.html

Leighton has asked shareholders to approve the name change at the company’s annual general meeting in Sydney on April 21.

As exclusively reported by Fairfax on Thursday, Leighton Holdings lodged an application to trademark “CIMIC” with IP Australia, the government agency that administers intellectual property rights, on March 3.

CIMIC stands for Construction, Infrastructure, Mining and Concessions.