A board member of the UK’s nuclear submarine agency also works as chairman of a Kazakh state-owned oil and gas company, according to documents released under information laws.
Security experts have raised concerns that someone occupying a defence security role, with potential for access to confidential material, is also employed by a state-owned enterprise from a country where there are significant levels of corruption.
Chris Walton, the former chief financial officer of EasyJet, has served as the chairman of KazMunayGas since 2017 which is majority owned by the Kazakh sovereign wealth fund. After joining the energy firm, he was appointed as a board member and chairman of the audit committee for the Submarine Delivery Agency (SDA) in 2018.
The SDA was set up “to manage the procurement, in-service support and disposal of UK nuclear submarines” and will procure the new Dreadnought class submarine that will form the backbone of the UK’s nuclear deterrent.
KazMunayGas was founded in 2002 in a merger of other Kazakh state oil and gas firms and reported revenue of $11 billion last year.
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It is close to the Kazakh regime, with Timur Kulibaev, the son-in-law of the autocrat Nursultan Nazarbayev, serving as its vice president between 2002 and 2005. Kulibaev is best known in the UK for purchasing Sunninghill, Prince Andrew’s marital home, for £3 million more than the asking price in 2007.
UK guidelines on risk state that while some improvements have been made “corruption remains a key constraint” on doing business in the country.
It also received a poor score in Transparency International’s latest corruption perceptions index, with 17 per cent of Kazakh public service users reporting they had had to pay a bribe in the previous 12 months. The country is classified as unfree by Freedom House.
Nazarbayev stepped down as president in 2019 but remains “leader of the nation” and a major government figure.
While there is no allegation of any wrongdoing by Walton, his Kazakh role has posed questions from experts and transparency campaigners as to why the Ministry of Defence allowed him to retain this appointment while working in a sensitive security role.
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Tom Keatinge, director of the Centre for Financial Crime and Security Studies at the think tank Rusi, said: “This raises the question of whether individuals linked to UK national security should have business interests in countries where the application of the rule of law does not align with UK values.”
Professor Elizabeth David-Barrett, director of the Centre for the Study of Corruption at the University of Sussex said: “If you have a role with a sensitive defence body such as this, it is questionable whether you should also be working for any foreign state-owned enterprise. This is especially questionable in relation to a country like Kazakhstan where there is a high degree of corruption, where we know there are close ties between state owned enterprises and the ruling elite.”
Steve Goodrich, head of research and investigations at Transparency International UK, said: “When ministers select business leaders to also oversee strategic defence assets, the appointees’ day jobs can pose security risks that need careful consideration.
“Working for a state-owned extractives company in a country where corruption is a major challenge is likely to present occupational hazards that are not wholly compatible with scrutinising sensitive military projects.”
Normally a register of interests for executives and board members of public bodies is published on the government’s website. However, this information came to light after a freedom of information request by The Times.
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The seven board members of KazMunayGas received $820,000 in directors’ fees last year. Walton also serves on the national shipbuilding strategy client board, an MoD body that overseas warship procurement.
The MoD said: “The SDA has rigorous procedures to monitor declarations of interest from its non-executive directors and they are all subject to comprehensive security clearance checks. We are satisfied that there is no conflict of interest in this case.”
Walton declined to comment.