Bus maker Scania paid bribes to win bus contracts in India: Report

Stockholm, 10/3: The Swedish truck and bus maker Scania has paid bribes to win bus contracts in India in seven different states between 2013 and 2016, according to Swedish news channel SVT.

Scania is a unit under Volkswagen AG’s commercial vehicle arm Traton SE, started operations in India in 2007 and established a manufacturing unit in 2011.

An investigation started by Scania in 2017 showed serious shortcomings by employees including senior management, a Scania spokesman told Reuters when contacted for comment on the report.

“This misconduct included alleged bribery, bribery through business partners and misrepresentation,” he said.

He said Scania had since stopped selling city buses on the Indian market and the factory that was established there had been closed down.

“We may have been a bit naive, but we really went for it… we really wanted to make it in India but underestimated the risks,” CEO Henrik Henriksson told SVT.

Henriksson said any wrongdoing in India had been committed by a few individuals who had since left the company, and all involved business partners had their contracts canceled.

The bribes were also given to an unnamed Indian minister, according to the report by SVT, German broadcaster ZDF and India’s Confluence Media.