KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 15 — Supermax Corporation Bhd has clarified that only the Canadian federal government contract is on hold pending the submission of the audit report from an independent auditor.
In a filing with Bursa Malaysia today, the company said the headline of a news article titled ‘Canada pauses imports from Supermax over forced labour concerns’ on November 14, 2021 was misleading.
“Currently, a US-based independent auditor is conducting the site audit and the report would be available for submission sometime in the fourth week of November 2021,” said the company.
The Supermax Group had embarked on its undertaking to meet the International Labour Organisation (ILO) standards on migrant workers since 2019.
The process had already started and Supermax was surprised that due consideration had not been given to the fact that corrective steps had started and improvements made to labour welfare.
“We will speed up the process to meeting the ILO standards,” it said.
The Canadian market represents nine per cent of the group’s total market and market share fluctuates based on successful tender awards for each year.
It also said the duration of the withholding of contract would also determine the extent of the adverse financial impact.
However, the company does not foresee any material impact operationally.
“All other personal protective equipment (PPE) products such as surgical face mask, glove imports from other suppliers, gowns and dental products which Supermax Canada are doing are not affected.
“Other PPEs operations are business as usual,” it added. — Bernama
