Truth can be stranger than fiction. A recent misconduct case discovered via SpeakUp has all the ingredients of a thriller: theft, bribery, forgery and a good deal of blackmail too. With a little help from SpeakUp, one employee finds the courage to collect conclusive evidence.
A local subsidiary of a reputable global blue chip company, somewhere in Latin America. The local management is very active – but sadly not for the company that pays them their full-time salary. During office hours, the country CEO is busy setting up his own company. To raise the stakes even further, the CEO’s venture will be directly competing with the company where he holds his present, well-paid management position. A hand-picked group of other senior managers is already actively involved as well, with shares in the new company having been offered to them as bait. And it’s not only the company’s time and intellectual property that is being stolen. Office furniture, employee uniforms, a company car: the parasitical start-up receives it all for free or next to nothing – with the help of a little creative accounting and document forgery at the main company, that is.
Nobody to turn to
Many employees are aware of what’s happening but they have been bribed and/or bullied into keeping their mouths shut and looking the other way. All but one, that is. One employee, Anna*, refuses to become an accomplice or to remain a passive bystander. Her direct supervisor cannot be relied on and she deems him “completely helpless,” and as they are the culprits, she obviously cannot turn to the higher ranking managers. So after careful consideration, she enters her first message on the secure SpeakUp website. This was no easy decision, says Anna. “I was living in a state of fear, afraid of revenge.” In its response, the Compliance department offers both understanding and the option for Anna to remain anonymous.
A fish rots from the head down
In a process ultimately involving five months of confidential dialogue between Anna and the company’s HQ Compliance department in Europe, the situation slowly but surely becomes clear. Not surprisingly, a broader company culture problem at the national organisation level emerges. The Code of Conduct booklet as provided by the company’s HQ was never distributed. Nepotism and cronyism are rife. Friends and family members of senior management are given jobs with glitzy titles and impressive salaries, but without much work or clear-cut responsibilities attached. One friend of the CEO, well into his 70s, comes in every Friday as a strategy consultant, but is never seen doing anything other than reading a book in his office. The CEO himself is not big on devising strategic plans for his employer either; he is preoccupied with his new venture, but also with the continuous improvement of his golf handicap. His membership at an exclusive foreign country club is charged in full to the company, without it being even remotely useful to the business.
Parasitical practices
The illegal funding and support of the competitive start-up continues unabated. Banking and insurance agreements on behalf of the main company are only made when favourable conditions for the new start-up can be added as a side deal. Employees are required to work at the start-up and receive cash bonuses from the main company in return to ensure their discrete cooperation. Additionally, the start-up sells products with costly warranties and service to be provided by the main company, without any compensation.
Step-by-step and still on an anonymous basis, Anna is able to produce evidence for the company headquarters’ auditors to go on. Meanwhile, she continues her attempts to raise her concerns at the local managerial level, but to no avail: the HR manager tells her he knows all about the situation and that he understands her position, but recommends that she either keep silent or quit the company. He also advises Anna that unless she stops complaining, he sees no alternative but to freeze her salary for the foreseeable future. Before long, it transpires that the HR manager, too, is heavily involved in the illicit scheming.
The power of persistence
Based on the information Anna provides, the parent company springs into action. The national organization is visited by the regional auditing team. Unfortunately, they do not succeed in finding enough material evidence to back up Anna’s accusations. Apparently, management was tipped in advance of the upcoming audit and succeeded in covering most of their tracks. No less than 10 big boxes packed with no doubt incriminating documents were seen to be removed from the site just before the auditors came in. “We sure fooled those guys,” Anna overhears the CEO saying after they have left.
But Anna keeps at it, supported and assured by corporate compliance, and the evidence mounts. Two months later, a second audit is deployed, this time by a team sent straight from corporate headquarters and they find enough incriminating evidence to swiftly start legal procedures, which, at the time of writing, are well underway. Anna’s contribution is complete; mission accomplished. The company’s HQ compliance department is extremely grateful and would like to thank her in person – if only they knew who she was…
(*) this name is fictitious