Scania employees are expected to follow the rules in "The Scania Way", which among other things is about not paying bribes, and sound the alarm at the slightest suspicion of cheating.
But the Swedish large company's business in India between 2013 and 2016 shows something completely different.
"Not a bus was sold without bribes"
Through documentation - in the form of email conversations, text messages, documents and testimonies - Assignment review together with German ZDF and Indian Confluence media can reveal how agents and dealers who represented Scania gave gifts and cash to decision makers to win bus contracts in India.
An agent says: "not a bus was sold without bribes".
Scania has itself investigated the suspicions.
They state that the company paid for bus contracts in seven different states and that employees state that suspected bribes were known within Scania.
An internal investigation states:
"... the approval from the then CEO (for Scania India, editor's note) and CFO led xx and other employees to believe that payments to government officials were common within Scania."
Scania's CEO: "Maybe we were a little naive"
Scania's CEO Henrik Henriksson was chairman of the company in India between 2013 and 2016. He says that the mistakes that have taken place in India have been committed by a few individuals who have acted completely outside "The Scania Way".
- We may have been a little naive, but we invested heavily.
We went in with a bang and really wanted to succeed in India, but we underestimated the risks, he says.
It is not uncommon for international companies to hire resellers and agents for their local knowledge.
Parul Sharma is a human rights lawyer with a special focus on South Asia.
- Today there is so much data, research and information about the difficulties with third-party consultants and commercial agents and how to follow up the work.
It is not possible to refer to any kind of naivety in the matter, she says.
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"A textbook example" - hears human rights lawyer Parul Sharma comment on the information about Scania.
Photo: SVT
One million Indian rupees in plastic bag
Assignment review has taken note of how suspected bribes were paid.
According to a chat conversation between an agent and a Scania manager, the agent gives money to a minister in exchange for a bus contract.
The agent photographs the handover for his own safety.
Pictures show a woman with a black plastic bag, which according to the Assignment review source contains one million Indian rupees, then the equivalent of 130,000 kronor.
When the banknotes are counted, the Scania manager sends a message to the minister - the money has been delivered.
But the boss is worried that the agent photographed the woman and writes:
"Thanks for the help yesterday, but very important that it is confidential."
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Here, money is delivered in a black plastic bag to a minister in exchange for a bus contract - this is what the bribes could look like.
Photo: SVT
Scania: Participants have been allowed to leave the company
On a later occasion, the same minister is said to have received another one and a half million Indian rupees, which then corresponded to 210,000 Swedish kronor, from Scania's agent.
CEO Henrik Henriksson says that he has seen the picture of the woman before, that it is in one of the company's internal investigations.
- We found a number of incidents where there are suspicions of bribery, but also a few where there is evidence that our private dealers have used bribes and it is completely unacceptable.
Henrik Henriksson says that private business partners who have been involved have had their contracts terminated and that employees at Scania who have been involved have been allowed to leave the company.
Have not reported to the police
But Scania's irregularities in India are not just about bribes.
Assignment review may also reveal that Scania has falsified truck models by replacing chassis numbers and license plates on trucks in order to be sold to an Indian mining company.
A deal that has been worth close to SEK 100 million.
Despite serious criminal suspicions - and the fact that Scania's own investigators recommended the company management to report the suspected crimes - this has not been done.
- We have enough evidence to believe that someone has made a mistake who is employed by Scania internally in our own company, but it is not the same as that we had enough evidence to be able to go to court or to go to the police and report it to the police, says Henrik Henriksson.
It is the task of the police to assess whether this is criminal or not?
- The overall picture of this from our advisers is that we do not have enough evidence and security to be able to move forward as it looked then.
See a longer interview with CEO Henrik Henriksson here:
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"We underestimated the risks" - see the interview with Scania's CEO Henrik Henriksson.
Photo: SVT