Oracle Bribed Indian Railways Employees To Get Projects? Investigation Starts Against Oracle For Bribing!

In a case that has been doing rounds around the internet, the US Securities and Exchange Commission, which is an independent agency of the United States federal government with the primary purpose of enforcing law against market manipulation, has filed bribery allegations against the Texas-based multinational computer technology corporation Oracle.

The US federal agency has charged Oracle of bribing officials of an Indian state-owned enterprise (SOE) that lies under the administration of Indian Railways.

According to reports, the Railway Ministry (Govt of India) has begun investigations against these allegations filed by the US SEC order that was issued last month.

Details of the Oracle Bribery Case

The railway ministry has launched a probe into the Oracle India bribery case following a US SEC order last month.

As per the order, the sales employees of Oracle India made use of an excessive discount scheme in relation to a transaction with a transportation company. A majority of authority of this SOE lied under the administration of the Indian Ministry of Railways.

“In January 2019, the sales employees working on the deal claimed the deal would be lost without a 70% discount on the software component of the deal, citing intense competition from other original equipment manufacturers,” the order said.

The report filed by the SEC further stated that in order to approve the request for passing, Oracle required an allowance from a France-based employee, given the size of the discount, which the latter did without any asking for further documentary support.

However, the procurement website of the Indian state-owned enterprise, which is publicly available, showed that the Indian unit of Oracle had no competition in the first place, as it had made the use of Oracle products in the project compulsory.

According to an Economic Times report, an official from the Railway ministry said that no timeline or SOE has been identified yet as the primary target of the ongoing investigation.

The USE SEC has put fines of over $ 23 million on charges that Oracle violated provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act as its subsidiaries in India, Turkey and the UAE, the report added.