Nissan suspected of forging inspection documents: Report

NISSAN SAID ON MONDAY IT WILL RECALL 1.21 MN CARS AFTER IT EMERGED THAT UNQUALIFIED

STAFF WERE PERFORMING FINAL CHECKS ON VEHICLES

TOKYO: Nissan factories routinely forged inspection documents for new vehicles, reports said Wednesday, as a scandal mounted around Japan’s secondbiggest carmaker that has been hit with a costly recall.

Nissan said Monday it would recall 1.21 million cars in its home market after it emerged that unqualified staff were performing final checks on vehicles before they were shipped to dealers and consumers.

But the reported on Wednesday that factories issued documents with the names and seals of certified inspectors “to make as if certified staff had carried them out”.

“It is a significant problem if the documents were forged to hide wrongdoings,” the quoted an anonymous transport ministry official as saying.

A government probe found the Japanese automaker had used uncertified staff to check vehicles at all six of its domestic factories,

said.

“If the fabrication of paperwork did happen, it would mean workers at the factories had intentionally sought to cover up the practice, rather than overlooked regulations on inspectors’ qualifications,” Kyodo said.

Nissan said the transport ministry had carried out inspections at all six of its factories in Japan.

However, a spokeswoman declined to comment on the content of the reports, citing an internal investigation that the firm had said could take one month.

Transport ministry officials also declined to comment on the reports or the status of their probe when reached by

Nissan shares dropped more than 2% after national broadcaster NHK aired the news.

On Monday, Nissan president Hiroto Saikawa admitted that junior inspectors were performing tasks they were not certified to do, calling it a “very serious problem”. “They were not oneoff, accidental incidents,” he said, adding he was not sure how and when the practice started. The vehicles affected were built between October 2014 and September 2017, the company said.

Saikawa said the company will spend at least a month to investigate what happened and the recall could cost the firm around 25 billion yen ($222 million).

Transport minister Keiichi Ishii said on Tuesday that Nissan’s actions “shake the foundation of safety check systems”.