Published on the 19/03/2015 | Written by Beverley Head
A former Commonwealth Bank senior technology executive was hauled in front of a NSW magistrate yesterday to answer allegations of bribery…
Keith Hunter, who was until late 2014 general manager of the CBA’s technology service management and operations, pleaded not guilty to allegations that he and Jon Waldron, formerly general manager of infrastructure engineering at the bank shared in almost US$2 million worth of kickbacks after awarding a contract to California-based cloud software specialist ServiceMesh without going through a formal tender process. Waldron has reportedly left Australia and is believed to be living in the US.
The case is due back in court next month.
In a statement the CBA said that it had reported the matter to the NSW Police.
“We have no tolerance for any illegal activity by any employee and we take every situation seriously.
We confirm that no customer has been affected by this matter. It is not appropriate to further comment while this matter is before the court.”
ServiceMesh was acquired, after it won the CBA deal, by CSC.
The bank’s then chief information officer Michael Harte was even quoted in CSC’s press release announcing the planned takeover saying that: “The ServiceMesh Agility Platform is a foundational element of our cloud operating model.”
Whatever the outcome of the court case it would be hard to unwind from the bank’s infrastructure.
A CSC spokesperson today said of the allegations: “We take this matter very seriously and will co-operate fully with all relevant authorities. CSC acquired ServiceMesh in late 2013 and we have begun our own investigation into these allegations. CSC strives to conduct its business globally with the highest degree of integrity and will ensure that these concerns are thoroughly and promptly addressed.”
The lynchpin role of Waldron to the CBA is revealed in a 2012 Forrester Research case study detailing the ServiceMesh deployment.
According to that document Waldron was responsible for the profit and loss of the IT business – and was measured by the impact of IT on business innovation.
He also referred to the lynchpin role of ServiceMesh in the CBA’s technology landscape describing how the service was used to enforce policies for cloud deployments. “You need to start with your policies first, then you can automate away all the control points between infrastructure elements – those are the points where you lose time and incur additional costs.”
At time of writing Waldron’s LinkedIn still describes him as being employed by the CBA and says that he holds a Masters of Science in mathematics and computer science from the University of Auckland.
