Pemex exec quits after report of trip paid by SAP

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Fri Jun 5, 2009 4:01pm EDT

MEXICO CITY, June 5 (Reuters) - A senior executive at Mexico's state oil company Pemex has resigned after a national newspaper reported he accepted a free trip to Monaco from German software group SAP, Pemex said on Friday.

SAP paid for a four-day trip to Monaco's Formula One Grand Prix for Manuel Reynauld, who was Pemex's deputy director of business processes and technology infrastructure, Mexico's Reforma newspaper reported on Friday.

The trip came shortly after Pemex awarded SAP (SAPG.DE) a $30 million contract for software, Reforma said.

Reynauld did not return telephone calls seeking comment. A spokesman for SAP was not immediately available to comment.

"With regard to ethics and the fight against corruption, the policy of Pemex will be zero tolerance," Pemex chief executive Jesus Reyes Heroles said in a statement announcing Reynauld's resignation.

Pemex has begun an internal investigation and is asking SAP for an explanation of the trip, the statement said.

Reyes Heroles said on Thursday he was anxious to crack down on any corruption within Pemex to help improve the company's image.

Pemex's many layers of bureaucracy leave the company open to corruption, according to industry observers.

In the wake of one of the most notorious scandals at Pemex in recent years the government fined a former Pemex chief executive and four other former senior managers in 2005 for their role in funneling $200 million of state money into the coffers of a political party through Pemex's massive trade union.

(Reporting by Robert Campbell; editing by Jim Marshall)

((R.Campbell@thomsonreuters.com; +52 55 5282 7142; Reuters Messaging: robert.campbell.reuters.com@reuters.net)) Keywords: MEXICO OIL/SAP

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