Siemens uncovers bribery at Kuwait unit

Siemens has uncovered a bribery case at its Kuwait unit, triggering investigations against several former managers and stirring up memories of the largest corruption case in Germany's corporate history. Prosecutors in Munich said they were investigating allegations of bribery and had detained several former managers. People close to the situation said the former managers had attempted to bribe officials of Kuwait's energy and water ministry with €1.25 million (Dh6.49 million) for a future project. The case had been detected by Siemens' compliance unit, highlighting how the engineering conglomerate has learned to fight corruption following a €1.3 billion bribery scandal a few years ago that rocked the company. The discovery of a system of slush funds used to pay bribes to win contracts all over the world led to the departure of dozens of senior managers, cost the German industrial group in excess of €2 billion in fines and advisory payments and prompted it to install a 600-strong compliance unit. It has also brought compliance to the top of German chief executives' list of priorities in recent years, with most large listed companies investing strongly into compliance. A Siemens spokesman said the case proved the effectiveness of the compliance unit. "We were able to uncover the incident at an early stage, we have promptly brought in the authorities, we have made the case public and we have immediately taken disciplinary measures," he said. From / Gulf News