Aerospace and defence giant Airbus has appointed a panel of independent consultants following the launch of a bribery investigation at its jet business by the UK’s Serious Fraud Office.
Airbus said it had set up an three-member “Independence Compliance Review Panel” that will be given “all access to all levels of the company and will report to the Airbus CEO and Board on how to further improve Airbus’ compliance processes, policies, organisation and culture”.
The news comes after French authorities joined the SFO in investigating allegations of fraud, bribery and corruption in March. The SFO launched a probe into Airbus’ use of third party consultants to win international aircraft orders last year.
Chief executive Tom Enders said:
A year ago we self-disclosed to the authorities misstatements and omissions that we had found. We have been cooperating fully with the investigations that ensued and further improving our compliance system is obviously our number one priority now.
The panel is made up of former German finance minister, Theo Waigel, David Gold, one of the UK’s most senior laywers, and Noëlle Lenoir, a former French minister and specialist in competition law.
“We have chosen to elect highly experienced independent experts to challenge and guide us,” added Mr Enders.