The firm in question is TALCO Management Ltd (TML), which is based in the British Virgin Islands. TML has been granted the exclusive right to conduct trade on the massive TALCO plant, controlled by the Tajik Government. According to one parliamentarian, the legislature is concerned that Norsk Hydro’s business with TML “displays a lack of openness that should not be found in a state-owned company.”
Dagens Naeringsliv
, a prominent Norwegian newspaper, alleges that Norsk Hydro has been tendering payment for almost twenty years to affiliated companies in various tax havens whose owners have gone to great lengths to remain unknown. Norsk Hydro says it cannot reveal the owners either, as they insist that they are bound by contract to keep such owners unnamed.
Norwegian MP Monica Maeland reportedly sent Norsk Hydro a list of questions regarding its dealings, but neither she nor the rest of the committee were satisfied with the answers.
“We and the minister must find out who are the hidden owners, therefore this is an order to both Hydro and the minister,” said Jette F. Christensen, a member of the committee and MP for the Labor Party. “We also believe that we must see the entire contract Hydro had with TML.”
“I can’t see that there should be any commercial reasons that such ownership shouldn’t be made public,” explained Michael Tetzschner of the Conservative Party, deputy leader of the disciplinary committee. He continued on, saying it would at any rate, “need to be justified very well” as to why it should be “acceptable” for Norsk Hydro’s business associates to remain hidden.
The disciplinary committee wants Norsk Hydro’s dealings to be “seen in the light of Norway’s anti-corruption laws, the parliament’s intentions behind the laws and Hydro’s own anti-corruption handbook.”
Norsk Hydro ASA, often referred to as just Hydro, is a Norwegian aluminum and renewable energy company, headquartered in Oslo. Hydro is one of the largest aluminum companies worldwide. It has operations in some 50 countries around the world and is active on all continents. The Norwegian state owns 43.8% of the company through the Ministry of Trade and Industry. A further 6.5% is owned by Folketrygdfond, which administers the Government Pension Fund of Norway. Norsk Hydro employs approximately 12,500 people.
The Tajik Aluminum Company (TALCO) is one of the ten largest aluminum smelters in the world and provides up to 70% of the country’s foreign currency earnings, consuming 40% of the country’s electrical power. TALCO is wholly owned by the Tajik government. Tajikistan does not mine alumina but imports the raw material through tolling arrangements.
Construction of the Tajik aluminum plant (TadAZ) began in 1972, and the first pouring of aluminum took place on March 31, 1975. On April 3, 2007, TadAZ was officially renamed to TALCO – Tajik Aluminum Company. The Tajik aluminum smelter had the capacity to produce 517,000 metric tons per year.
