TCS say no recruitment fraud; issue relates to breach of Code of Conduct

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India’s largest IT services company, said in a statement that the media report implicating senior executives in kickbacks for jobs from recruiters relates to a breach of the company’s code of conduct by some employees and vendors. It also said there was no financial impact and no fraud involved.

TCS provided these clarifications to the exchanges in a filing. A media report said senior executives involved in hiring thousands of employees had taken bribes from headhunters. The story also mentioned that the head of the Resource Management Group (RMG) at TCS was accepting commissions from headhunters.

However, TCS said in a statement: “The recruitment activities of TCS are not handled by the Resource Management Group (RMG) as alleged and therefore the reference to the alleged fraud in the recruitment process is incorrect. RMG is responsible for allocating available resources to various projects And if there is any deficiency, fill in these requirements through the contractors. The complaint referred to in the article relates to the recruitment of these contract resources used by the contractors.”

The statement further stated that upon receipt of the complaint, TCS initiated an audit to examine the allegations made in the complaint.

Based on the review: (i) this does not involve any fraud by or against the Company and has no financial impact; (ii) the issue relates to breaches of the Company’s Code of Conduct by certain employees and vendors providing contractors, and (iii) no on any key company management person involved,” the statement read.

However, the incident shook the country’s recruitment industry and sparked a problem that the industry had been dealing with for some time. The Confederation of Indian Recruitment said in a statement: “We urge all stakeholders, including businesses and government, to consider engaging recruitment firms that prioritize ethical recruitment practices and regulatory compliance.”

“The Indian workforce plays a pivotal and irreplaceable role in various sectors, which contributes greatly to the economic progress of India,” said Lohit Bhatia, President, Confederation of Indian Employment.