ACCC sees no problem with making oil investigation public CANBERRA, April 28 AAP|Published: Sunday April 28, 10:17 AM
Australia's competition watchdog said it had no reason to apologise for making public its investigation into allegations of collusion by oil companies.
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) chairman Allan Fels said there was huge public interest in the issue.
He said the public was capable of differentiating between an investigation and proven claims.
Professor Fels promised he would make public the outcome of the ACCC's investigation but said he would not consider resigning if the oil companies were found to be innocent.
ACCC officers raided eight oil and petrol company sites in Melbourne, Sydney and Newcastle last week, including multinational oil companies Caltex, Mobil and Shell and independent fuel retailers searching for proof they colluded to fix prices.
"We do a lot of investigations and if we conclude there is no breach of the law then we will announce that publicly," Professor Fels told the Seven Network.
"The fact is our job is to investigate allegations and particularly where there is something serious behind them.
"I don't feel apologetic about the fact that this matter is being done in public and the public is being told that we are investigating."
He said the investigation would take months rather than weeks to complete.
"We owe it to the public to do a proper, thorough investigation," Prof Fels said.
"We owe it to the public and to the oil companies to announce the results of the inquiry when it's done.
"This area of the law is very complex, giving evidence is quite a time consuming task, these sorts of investigations often take time, so we're looking at months, not weeks."
He admitted oil companies did not have a good image among the public but said the ACCC investigation had not tarnished that reputation further.
"It's had no impact on the general reputation of business regarding oil companies. The position there is that they do have some reputation problems with the public," Prof Fels said.
"In other words, oil companies don't have a terribly good public image but that's nothing to do with the ACCC.
"We are an accountable body and we have to explain what we're doing.
"We are answerable to the public, we are accountable."
