Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has banned six employees and six staffing firms, while three more employees are under scanner after whistleblowers blew the lid off a bribe-for-jobs scam. However, the Tata group company is unable to quantify the favours the employees got.
“We found six employees who did not follow the ethical conduct and while we cannot quantify what favours they got, they suddenly behaved in a way that favoured certain firms. So, we have banned six such employees and six Business Associate (BA) companies. Investigation is pending on three more employees,” TCS Chairman N. Chandrasekaran told shareholders at the company’s annual general meeting today.
TCS had received two whistleblower complaints, one each in February and March, and these were related to certain individuals in the company “favouring” certain BAs. Both the complaints were investigated, he added.
The company got two whistleblower complaints, one related to India and one to the US. The investigation in India is being done by a senior officer of the company, while it has hired an external firm to conduct an inquiry in the US.
“For a Tata Group company, the most important thing that is expected of every employee is an ethical conduct and integrity in operation, and that comes first ahead of any financial performance. So, whenever there is a violation of ethical conduct by any employee, it pains us, pains me and all the leaders very deeply. We take it extremely seriously and we will always take strong action,” he added.
The company will look at the whole process and tighten it to ensure that these incidents are not repeated. “That’s the job that we have at this point,” he said, adding TCS has a rigorous process to recruit or qualify or empanel a firm to be called a BA firm.
TCS seeks help from BAs – it employs about 1,000 search firms across the globe as it needs resources in 55 countries – wherever there is a talent shortage.
Earlier, TCS had stated that there was no fraud by or against the company, and there was no financial impact.
Talking about the economic scenario, Chandra said that all the trends — be it Artificial Intelligence, energy transition or supply chain management transformation or new skill and talent required for the future — point to significant investment and adoption of technologies by companies globally. FE
