Ecuador Cardno Caminosca corruption probe: How Queensland’s leading engineering firm was entangled

THE investigators found a journal, but it seemed to be written in code. Trying to crack that code would be central to corruption allegations entangling one of Queensland’s leading engineering firms, Cardno.

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The journal was found during a probe into Cardno’s subsidiary in Ecuador. It was an electronic calendar, The Courier-Mail can reveal today, and inside were a series of strange words.

At first they didn’t make sense. But a legal team investigating for Cardno thought they had decrypted the code. It seemed to point to payments linked to tenders on Ecuadorean government projects, say sources with knowledge of the probe.

The corruption allegations have been a shock to Cardno, which bought the Caminosca operation in Ecuador in late 2012. But they also raise deeper questions about the adequacy of checks when the Brisbane-based engineering firm, now with more than 6000 staff, swallowed almost 50 businesses in a decade.

The Courier-Mail today, via interviews and examinations of company documents, can reveal the untold story of how things went wrong and a potential scandal was uncovered.

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