A supervisor by the U.S. Justice and his 60-member team have published their first report.
The “supervisor employed by the US Justice at Volkswagen to the refurbishment of the diesel scandal” Larry Thompson wants to have found in its first report some violations of U.S. regulations. That the news agency AFP reported.
As information had been provided sporadically until him with delay. As independent compliance auditor (ICA) he have expressed its concerns in this regard. “This issue is to clarify, so that the ICA can effectively fulfill his mission in the next reporting period.” He expects that VW instead all information that it consider necessary, promptly available. The carmaker said improvements. The annual report is the first of three planned reports.
Coinciding with the release of the report Thompson pointed out at a press conference in Wolfsburg that Volkswagen will take his concerns seriously. “There are been initiated a number of positive processes.” Until the group have met all obligations towards the US Justice in terms of integrity, compliance and culture, but still had to do. “There we have not arrived yet.”
The health set up by Volkswagen after the diesel scandal and legal officer Hiltrud Werner made it clear that the initiated change of the corporate culture will employ the group for many years. By 2020, it wanted extend the health program to all brands and reach around 70 percent of the workforce. “We have a marathon ahead of us.” Five years later all subsidiaries and thus all around 650,000 employees should be achieved.
She described as less serious infringements shown by Thompson. In one case, it involves a catalog of compliance issues in manuals that should assist the management in compliance with U.S. environmental laws, but had not been recorded ‘accidentally’. The other case relates to written communications should be sent within a certain period before the start of emission measurements on the CARB’s California Environmental Protection Agency. This is “simply” have been overlooked. Basically these were things “that we could have to, if we had been careful”, Werner conceded.
After the causes of the diesel scandal, Thomson pointed questions on the ongoing investigations in the United States and in Germany. “That is not on my list of responsibility.” He was not an investigator, but responsible that VW will fulfill its commitments. Still he could not assess whether initiated changes are effective, said Thompson, who was formerly Deputy US – Attorney General.
To illustrate, Volkswagen to seriously change, the 72-Jährige referred to statements by CEO Herbert Diess. This will make the Wolfsburg Corporation, wrestling for nearly three years with the consequences of the scandal of diesel, “decent”. Volkswagen is to be honest, open and true, had announced in May before the shareholders Diess.
Thompson has put together a team of 60 specialists, where the carmaker to request must make available all necessary documentation. The monitor monitors whether the Wolfsburg comply with the comparison with the US authorities and implement the promised reforms. In the negotiations with the U.S. Justice, VW had admitted, with exhaust data for years deceived authorities and customers, environmental law to have violated and obstructed justice. The criminal comparison has a volume of four billion euros. Overall, the refurbishment of millions worldwide exhaust manipulation in VW costs more than 27 billion euros.
Other European companies have so far made with U.S. supervised experience. So Credit Suisse must pay one employed monitors for years by the U.S. Department of Justice, which million costs caused and remained despite the official end of his activity in the Bank.