Russian nuclear company Rosatom has come into the spotlight after one of its senior officials was arrested for corruption, reported the Witness on Wednesday. Rosatom is currently in a bid for South Africa’s R1 trillion nuclear project.

According to the report, corruption within the state owned company is rife. The latest official, a director of the fuel supply arm of Rosatom Vadim Mikerin, was arrested in an FBI sting operation. Mikerin is alleged to have accepted bribes worth R18 million from three American businesspeople in exchange for tenders.

Rosatom is reported to have fired around 276 officials in three years on corruption-related charges.

According to a Greenpeace report, major corruption issues have taken root in the nuclear power plant supplier because of a culture of corruption among individuals.

“Rosatom have had serious corruption problems, likely due, at least in part, to the structural lack of transparency and external accountability,” said the report.

It added the company has a “potential for exacerbated [corruption]” with its export contracts.

Opposition parties were up in arms in September after Energy Minister Tina Joemat –Pettersson announced the formation of a strategic partnership between South Africa and Russia to build a large scale nuclear power plant in South Africa.

The deal was allegedly negotiated by President Jacob Zuma and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in a number of secret meetings. The department denied the allegations and said it signed a country-to-country framework agreement with Russia. South Africa is expected to sign similar agreements with France, China and the US.

Responding to the allegations of corruption at Rosatom, the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) Lance Greyling said: “The DA is shocked by these instances of corruption on the part of Rosatom. But unfortunately … nuclear deals allow great scope for corruption and backroom deals. We will simply not allow the government to sell our energy future based on backroom deals.”