WEIR Group, the Glasgowbased company alleged to have paid a multi-million pound bribe to Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq, yesterday admitted it had parted company with several staff members over the claims.

The bribe was alleged to have been paid to the Iraq regime under the discredited United Nations' oil for food programme. Officers from Strathclyde Police are now understood to be investigating the industrial pumps group's involvement.

Mark Selway, chief executive of Weir, said the company had not been contacted by police over the scandal.

"No, there's been no contact with the group, nothing at all, " he said.

Pressed on whether he feared any of his senior executives could face a jail term if they are found to have been involved in the bribe scandal, Selway was emphatic: "Not particularly. To be honest with you, it's old news."

Although he declined to be more specific, Selway said: "We've dealt with the personnel issues . . . a few people are now no longer there (at the company).

"I'm pretty proud of the way the board responded (to the claims)."

Weir has previously only said that an unspecified number of its executives had been subject to "confidential disciplinary procedures", though none was sacked, apart from one of its agents in Dubai.

The Volcker inquiry last October reported that the oil for food programme was riddled with corruption and mismanagement, linking almost 2400 companies, 11 in the UK, to allegations of bribery.

In Weir's case, it was claimed a salesman, Andrew Macleod, who said he was acting under company orders, made payments to the former Iraq regime.

Weir reportedly admitted that it found GBP2.5m in irregular payments to bank accounts in Switzerland but said they were made through an agent who said there was no direct contact between Weir and Baghdad.

However, the Volcker report concluded Macleod had negotiated the deals.

It is thought Strathclyde Police might be interested in interviewing Macleod with a view to potentially prosecuting some senior people at Weir.

Selway, who took the reins after the alleged payments were made, was speaking as the group announced an 11per cent rise in underlying annual pre-tax profit to GBP62.2m, up from GBP55.9m a year earlier, boosted by demand for its pumps and valve products from mining, oil and power generation markets.

The group also appointed ScottishPower's senior executive, Keith Cochrane, to take over as finance director, replacing Chris Rickard, who is leaving for family reasons, in July.

Cochrane is a former chief executive of Scottish transport group Stagecoach and was beaten to the top finance post at ScottishPower last year by Simon Lowth.

Selway said Cochrane was "a very, very skilled guy" who would bring huge experience in both international accounting standards, and strategy.

Weir also said last year's acquisition of specialist Italian pump manufacturer Gabbioneta had performed well, and that the integration was on track.

Selway said he was comfortable with current market forecasts for 2006 pre-tax profit of GBP68m-GBP71m, and said the company had up to GBP250m to spend on bolt-on acquisitions, probably in North America or Australia.

Additionally, Selway said the group was looking at three sites in the Glasgow area as potential candidates to replace its ageing Cathcart manufacturing operation, which employs around 900 people.

He said the new, purposebuilt site would be "as close as we can to the current plant". Selway admitted Weir was looking at a site in Cambuslang, but said no firm decision would be made until towards the end of the year.

The facility is expected to take around 18 months to build, and could cost up to GBP35m.

The total dividend increased 3.1per cent to 13.2p per share, and shares in the group fell 17p, or 3.8per cent, to close at 431p yesterday.