Report on changes at Volkswagen cites lack of transparency
Audit evaluates VW’s efforts to prevent trouble after 2015 emissions scandal
WOLFSBURG, GERMANY—Nearly three years since U.S. authorities charged Volkswagen AG for cheating on emissions tests, the German automaker is only starting to implement changes needed to prevent another scandal, according to a report by a Justice Dept.-appointed monitor.
The report, published on Monday, is the work of Larry Thompson, a former deputy U.S. attorney general appointed as independent compliance auditor after Volkswagen pleaded guilty to violations of U.S. law in connection with the diesel scandal.
Mr. Thompson criticized the company for being insufficiently transparent, citing a “reluctance to share certain information.” Volkswagen, he wrote, routinely “included the use of redactions” in documents provided to the auditor. Often, company officials would claim attorney-client privilege and invoke German privacy laws.
Addressing journalists at the company’s headquarters in central Germany, Mr. Thompson and Hiltrud D. Werner, a Volkswagen board member, said the company had pledged to be more open in the future.
The report is the first audit of Volkswagen’s efforts to comply with its agreement with the Justice Dept. and the state of California since its guilty plea in the wake of the September 2015 disclosure that the company had rigged nearly 11 million dieselpowered cars to cheat emissions tests.
Mr. Thompson, who oversaw the federal investigation of Enron, which went bankrupt in 2001, has been critical of the sluggish pace of change at Volkswagen in the past.
Ms. Werner told reporters that the sheer magnitude of the scandal might have initially created some inertia at the company but that outsiders may underestimate the magnitude of the internal changes undertaken by the company.
“It is not easy to come from shock to shame to change,” Ms. Werner said.
Even as Volkswagen moves to implement enterprise-wide compliance systems, a code of conduct, and various technical changes to improve its ability to prevent another scandal, German prosecutors have asserted that some company officials were meddling with their ongoing investigation.
As recently as May, Audi AG, the luxury car maker owned by Volkswagen, said it had found illegal software that manipulates emissions in about 60,000 of its best-selling diesel-powered vehicles, acknowledging that the car maker continues to struggle to get control of an emissions-cheating scandal.
Audi CEO Rupert Stadler was later arrested and is still being detained on suspicion of trying to tamper with witnesses and impede the criminal investigation. Volkswagen maintains that the diesel scandal was carried out by a small group of lower-level engineers without the knowledge of higher executives and the management board.
But Mr. Stadler’s arrest and detention and a federal indictment in May of Martin Winterkorn, the former CEO who resigned under pressure in the days after disclosure of the scandal, are undermining VW’s rogue engineer narrative.
Mr. Thompson heads a team of as many as 60 people, all experienced with such compliance investigations, he said.
“Given the enormity and seriousness of what happened, my team is absolutely dedicated to pursuing its review in a rigorous and professional manner,” he said.