Anti-corruption measures
Too little, too late?反腐败：力度不足，为时已晚？
Dec 13th 2006 | FRANKFURT
From The Economist print edition
Siemens belatedly wakes up to reputation risk
西门子终于意识到自己的声誉危机，可惜为时已晚
IT IS a dense, dramatic account of police raids, arrests and the investigation into allegations that at least euro200m ($265m) was siphoned out of secret bank accounts in Liechtenstein, Austria and Switzerland. A page-turning airport thriller? No, the 20-F filing submitted by Siemens, a German conglomerate, to the Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington, DC on December 11th. At the same time, the firm restated its earnings to take account of uncertainties over transactions being investigated by state prosecutors in at least three countries.
这是一段关于警方的搜查、逮捕、调查的叙述，紧张而生动，因有人声称至少2亿欧元（2.65亿美元）从列支敦士登、奥地利、瑞士的秘密银行帐户上被划走。你以为这是让你不忍释卷的惊险小说？不是的，这是12月11日德国西门子集团提交给华盛顿证券交易委员会的20-F文件。提交文件的同时，考虑到国家检查官正在至少三个国家调查其交易，后果难料，西门子还重估了利润。
The purpose of these murky dealings remains unclear: was it a case of self-enrichment by crooked employees or something more sinister—carefully laundered bribes to win Siemens business in some of the 190 countries in which it operates? Siemens insists that it was a victim of crime not an accessory to it. It is investigating euro420m of suspicious payments to consultants over the past seven years. Meanwhile, six present and former employees, including one former board member arrested on December 12th, are in custody.
这些黑幕交易的意图尚不清楚，是不良雇员中饱私囊？或者存在更深的黑幕－－是西门子在洗清它用以取得业务所付的贿赂？要知道它在190个国家都有业务。西门子坚称其只是受害者，而非同谋。西门子公司也正在调查过去7年中付给一些咨询人员的可疑款项，金额达4.2亿欧元。同时，六名西门子雇员或前雇员也已被拘留，其中一名前任董事会成员还于12月12日被正式逮捕。
In the flow of adverse publicity since police raided 30 of its offices a month ago, Siemens has tried to show that it is taking appropriate action. It announced the formation of a “task force” to clarify and standardise its employees’ business practices. It also appointed an ombudsman to encourage internal whistleblowing. But for Transparency International (TI), an anti-corruption campaign group, this was not enough. It had already suspended Siemens’s membership of its German chapter in 2004 because of the company’s reluctance to be transparent about an unresolved bribery case in Italy. (The case was settled last month without admission of guilt.) Siemens’s sluggish reaction to investigations in Liechtenstein triggered a letter last month from TI warning that the firm’s membership would be liable for termination after December 15th.
自一个月前警方突然搜查西门子的三十间办公室以来，西门子公司不断身陷负面新闻。该公司也曾积极应对，以示方寸不乱：宣布组建一支“特别小组”，清理其雇员开展业务中的不正当行为并制定开展业务过程标准；它还任命了一名调查舞弊情况的独立人员，以鼓励内部揭发。但反腐败促进机构国际透明组织（Transparency International)认为，这些还远远不够。该组织已在2004年暂停了西门子在其德国分会的成员资格，因为西门子不愿公开意大利一桩未解决的贿赂案。（该案已于上月达成庭外和解，西门子并未获罪。）在列士敦士登的案件调查过程中，西门子还表现得十分不愿合作，上月招来了国际透明组织的警告信，称极有可能在12月15日后终止其成员资格。
At an emergency board meeting this week Siemens announced new measures to show how determined it is to change its culture. It appointed a law firm to investigate the company’s compliance and control systems. And it appointed Michael Hershman, an anti-corruption expert and one of the founders of TI (a nice touch), to review anticorruption controls and training at Siemens. But will this be enough to save the company’s reputation or its planned joint venture, Nokia Siemens Networks, which is due to start business on January 1st? The reputation risk could give Nokia grounds to pull out.
在本周举行的紧急董事会议上，西门子宣布了一些新举措，以昭示公众其改变企业文化的决心。它委任了一家律师事务所调研公司命令是否上行下达、对员工的约束是否有效。还委任了反腐败专家迈克尔.何西曼（他也是国际透明组织的创始人之一，西门子此举措很聪明。）检查其反腐败监管及教育培训措施。但这些措施足以挽救西门子的声誉吗？还有西门子与诺基亚计划中的合资项目－－诺基亚.西门子网络，该项目原定于明年1月1日开始运营，但声誉危机可能让诺基亚有理由退出。
Some of Siemens’ problems stem from the 1990s, before Germany and other nations signed the OECD’s anti-bribery convention in 1999. Yet the Italian case post-dates the convention and another case in Greece concerns preparations
for the 2004 Olympics. Siemens and the Munich prosecutors point to evidence that in the latest shenanigans the suspects “banded together” to defraud the firm. There is only so much one can do, sighs a Siemens spokesman, against “criminal energy”.
许多西门子的问题滋生于1990年代，那还是德国及其他国家1999年签署经济合作与发展组织（OECD）的反贿赂条约之前。然而签署条约后还是发生了意大利贿赂案，之前在希腊还有一桩有关04年奥运会准备工作的案件。西门子与慕尼黑的检察官公布了一些证据，揭露一些犯罪嫌疑人最近的鬼把戏，他们“联起手来”欺骗公司。要打击猖獗的犯罪分子，单方面力量实在有限，西门子发言人叹言。
But even poor supervision and control, rather than connivance with bribery, are bad enough. It cannot help appearances that Heinrich von Pierer, who was chief executive of Siemens in the 1990s before bribery was outlawed, still heads the supervisory board. He was supposed to steer the company through its transition to OECD anti-bribery rules and compliance with America’s Sarbanes-Oxley act, which requires greater disclosure and personal responsibility from executives. Worst of all for Germany’s reputation as export champion of the world is the suspicion that it may owe some of its prowess to secret bank accounts and slush funds.
即使西门子并未纵容贿赂行为，仅监管不力就足以导致严重后果。现任监事会主席Heinrich von Pierer在1990年代贿赂行为被禁止前任西门子总裁 ，可能也会因此难保监事会主席一职。他本该在任职总裁时期引领公司度过转型期－－遵守经济合作与发展组织（OECD）的反贿赂条例；遵守美国的Sarbanes-Oxley法案，该法案要求增加管理人员行为透明度、管理人员的个人责任将更大。最糟糕的是德国的声誉受到玷污，大家会怀疑这个“世界出口冠军”的成功某种程度上与秘密银行帐户及一些“脏钱”有关。
Klaus Kleinfeld, Siemens’s chief executive since January 2005, may escape the full wrath of shareholders. But he still has plenty to do to reach self-imposed profit targets for some of the group’s worse-performing divisions such as business systems, which is loss-making, and communications, where profits are sliding. The constant bad publicity
cannot help.
众股东可能不会归罪于现任总裁克劳斯.克雷福德，因为他是2005年1月才接任的。但他还是要付出很大努力才能达到他为自己制订的一些部门利润目标，这些部门是集团中表现最差的几个，如亏损的业务体系、利润下滑的通讯部门。而持续的不良公众效应对这一切都很不利。