Stockholm: Scania paid bribes to win bus contracts in India in seven different states between 2013 and 2016, according to an investigation by three media outlets, including Swedish news channel SVT.
Swedish truck and bus maker, a unit of Volkswagen AG’s commercial vehicle arm, Traton SE, started operations in India in 2007 and established a manufacturing unit in 2011.
An investigation opened by Scania in 2017 revealed serious shortcomings on the part of employees, including senior management, a Scania spokesperson said. Reuters when contacted to comment on the report.
“This misconduct included allegations of bribery, bribery through business partners and misrepresentation,” he said.
He said Scania had since stopped selling city buses in the Indian market and the factory there had been closed.
“We might have been a little naive, but we really did go… we really wanted to get to India, but we underestimated the risks,” CEO Henrik Henriksson told SVT.
Henriksson said any wrongdoing in India was committed by a few people who had since left the company and all business partners involved had their contracts canceled.
The bribes were also paid to an anonymous Indian minister, according to the report by SVT, German TV station ZDF and India Confluence Media. An Indian government official did not respond to requests for comment after hours.
Scania had also falsified truck models by replacing truck chassis numbers and license plates in order to sell them to an Indian mining company in a deal worth nearly SEK 100 million ($ 11.8 million), according to the report.
The spokesperson said his investigation of wrongdoing did not involve the police. “While there is sufficient evidence to prove violations of Scania’s compliance with trade codes so that the company can take severe action as a result, the evidence is not strong enough to lead to prosecution,” the spokesperson said. word.
(Reuters)