25 systems will become one
By our last estimate, Volkswagen has spent about $30 billion dealing with the scandal that broke after it was caught installing emissions-cheating software in its diesel vehicles. To make sure it doesn’t make such a costly mistake like that again, the German automaker has decided to change the structure of its compliance systems.
Automotive News reports that while there used to be 25 different compliance systems in place across all of the brands Volkswagen owns, those have all been consolidated into a single system. Kurt Michels, Volkswagen’s anti-corruption head, says he wants to work to make it easier for whistleblowers to come forward by changing the company’s “culture of silence.”
“Now we have an internal whistleblower system, where you can talk to your colleagues in the compliance department, so you don’t have to call outsiders,” Michels told reporters recently. “You can still call the lawyers nevertheless, you can issue topics anonymously. We try to open every channel available.”
When he joined the company back in April, Michels said he was surprised that employees weren’t willing to speak up or ask questions. Instead, they simply waited for him to give them orders. Michels also found little to no coordination between the brands. “It’s like living in a house and ‘my room is clean and proper and I don’t care about the rest’,” he said. “You’re living in one room, but you’re responsible for the entire building. That’s the mindset I want to create.”
We also recently learned that Volkswagen plans to fire Oliver Schmidt, the executive who was sentenced to seven years in prison and ordered to pay a $400,000 fine for his role in attempting to cover up the scandal. He’s reportedly requested to be able to serve his sentence in Germany instead of the U.S., but it’s unclear at the moment whether the Justice Department will grant his request.
Source: Automotive News 1, 2, 3 (Subscription required)