Germany: whilst the corruption scandals are still rife, a response model is beginning to take shape in businesses

New cases revealed almost daily. Last week, Rüdiger Grube, the new boss of Deutsche Bahn, announced that four members of its executive personnel and several other managers have left the company, to enable the business to make “a new start” after the scandal over the illicit checking of employees’ private details. Margret Suckale and Norbert Hansen (from personnel), Norbert Bensel (logistics) and Otto Wiesheu (political scandals) played no part in this scandal, Mr. Grube stated, “but they preferred to hand in their resignations,” he specified discreetly. They were not the only ones. Wolfgang Schaupensteiner, head of the anti-corruption department, Josef Bähr, head of internal audit and Jens Puls, head of the “internal security” department will also be putting their talents to good use elsewhere. A few weeks earlier Harmut Mehdorn, the top boss of the company for ten years, threw in the towel. With this clean break, Deutsche Bahn is hoping to close a less than glorious chapter in its history. But at the same time, other companies are discovering to their horror that they have not been spared by the corruption virus. Following an inspection by the German tax authorities, a network of backhander payments is now coming to light at MAN. Several employees are already behind bars and some one hundred others have received a summons from the judicial federal police. At the current stage of the inquiry, we know that 15 million euros were paid out to foreign customers. In Germany, one million euros is supposed to have also been used to “encourage” sales of lorries.