Muscat: Oman’s National Gas Company said that it has terminated the services of its chief executive officer, Goutam Sen, in a disclosure on Wednesday to Muscat Securities Market (MSM).
The board members of the company unanimously decided to terminate Sen’s services immediately.
The company disclosed in 2014 that its chief executive had been detained over suspected bribes paid to a government official.
“The Board of Directors wish to inform that the Company has received a reply from the public prosecution regarding the detention of the Company’s CEO,” National Gas Co said in a bourse statement. “The reply received states that the CEO has been accused of bribing a government official.”
The Public Prosecution ordered the company in 2014 to pay 500,000 riyals as bail for the CEO.
Sen was part of a widespread corruption scandal in the oil and gas sector in Oman along with other government officials.
The company hasn’t yet announced the new CEO.
The company was incorporated in 1979 to bottle and market liquefied petroleum gas, which it buys in bulk from Omani refineries and has seven strategically located plants.
Oman continues to wage a war on graft after it joined the United Nations Convention against Corruption in June 2015, in accordance with Royal Decree No. 64/2013.
Over 20 high-ranking officials have been arrested and jailed in the past five years, mostly from the oil and gas sector.
Heftier penalties for violators have been relatively successful in reducing corruption cases in the country.
In 2014, the Muscat Primary Court convicted the former minister of commerce and industry, the undersecretary of the Ministry of Transport and Communication and the Chief Executive Officer of the Oman Oil Company for corruption.
