In an extraordinary attempt to shield itself from scrutiny over the banknote foreign bribery affair, the RBA has claimed it cannot release a sensitive report under the Freedom of Information Act because it doesn't have access to a document held by its 100 per cent owned subsidiary, Note Printing Australia (NPA).

Fairfax Media this year sought under the FOI Act a report by forensic investigators from KPMG into the actions of former members of the NPA board, which included a senior businessman chosen by Prime Minister Tony Abbott to review Australia's energy target.

The KPMG report was commissioned after Fairfax Media last year revealed how two NPA executives met members of Saddam Hussein's family to discuss a banknote supply deal in 1998, in breach of United Nations sanctions.

Businessman Dick Warburton was on the NPA board at the time of the trip, as was former federal Liberal Party treasurer Mark Bethwaite.

Mr Warburton and Mr Bethwaite were directors of NPA when the company repeatedly engaged in foreign bribery across Asia, according to federal police allegations in the Melbourne Magistrates' Court.

Several former NPA executives have been charged with bribery-related offences, but there is no suggestion that Mr Warburton or Mr Bethwaite were involved in, or approved of, any wrongdoing.

The KPMG investigators were asked to examine the former NPA directors' knowledge and handling of the Iraqi trip.

In response to Fairfax Media's FOI request for the KPMG report, RBA secretary Anthony Dickman wrote: ''The Reserve Bank does not have a copy of the document.''

Mr Dickman stated that the report was commissioned by the present NPA board and was not ''a document of the agency''.

This is not the first time the RBA has hidden behind NPA to avoid releasing documents sought through the FOI process.

In 2010, the RBA twice refused to release a report by law firm Freehills that examined detailed corruption evidence provided by NPA's former company secretary Brian Hood in 2007.

Instead of referring Mr Hood's information to the federal police, the RBA decided to handle the matter internally and called in Freehills.

RBA governor Glenn Stevens later admitted it was a mistake not to go to the police. The RBA only contacted police after Fairfax Media revealed serious corruption concerns at its banknote printing companies in May 2009.

When Fairfax Media sought the Freehills report the RBA stated it did not have a copy of the document and that it was ''not within the RBA's purview to release''.

NPA and sister firm Securency have been charged by federal police with bribery offences in Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal and Vietnam. Several former executives also face criminal charges.