Monday 23rd March, 2015

Afren, the struggling oil producer which dismissed top executives last year, has called in the Serious Fraud Office after another discovery relating to expenses payments.

The Guardian reported today that it had "preliminary concerns... regarding the hire of an individual within its operations in 2012 and the payment of certain travel and accommodation expenses connected to Afren’s activities".

Law firm Wilkie Farr & Gallagher had been reviewing the company’s procedures after whistle-blower reports, and Afren said:

"Having received WFG’s preliminary findings of such review, the company has notified the proposed providers of the interim funding of such concerns.

In addition to this disclosure the company has notified the Serious Fraud Office of such matters. The company has taken steps to halt its previous practices in relation to such expenses payments."

SP Angel said:

"...We believe it now has to focus on the catastrophic failure of the CFO and his Finance team to adequately manage the Company’s risk profile, such that it is in this position in the first place"

The next stage to correcting the issues at Afren is to revamp the finance team with an emphasis on risk mitigation.