Nakheel says staff helping investigation

Nakheel, the real estate arm of Dubai World, said two of its employees are assisting authorities with their investigation into bribery allegations, a company spokesperson said yesterday.

"Two Nakheel employees are assisting the authorities with their investigations and it would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage," a company spokesperson told Emirates Business.

Financial Times reported yesterday that authorities have detained senior managers at Dubai Waterfront as part of an investigation into bribery allegations.

One of those detained, Matt Joyce, was managing director of the vast Waterfront project until he was made redundant last month, FT said.

Dubai public prosecution records show that Joyce, an Australian national, and two others have been detained for questioning in relation to allegations of bribery.

Nakheel, which is also the developer of $80 billion worth of projects, admitted last summer that some of its staff had been detained for questioning on fraud allegations.

Asked if the developer was planning to reduce its staff strength, the spokesperson said: "Nakheel continues to readjust its current business objectives to match supply and demand in the most effective way. Last month, we merged a number of its business units, which are now undergoing resource restructuring to ensure efficiency and optimisation of skill and talent".

In December 2008, Nakheel laid off 500 employees, or 15 per cent of the total workforce, and scaled back some of its projects.

Nakheel said in January that it was delaying work on its Nakheel Harbour & Tower project for a year.

In December, the developer stopped work on its $790 million Trump Tower project on Dubai's Palm Jumeirah.

The company is also slowing work at its Palm Jebel Ali and Palm Deira development projects.

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