'It Was Very Difficult To Detect,' What TCS CEO Said About The ¡®Bribe For Job¡¯ Scandal At The Company

India's largest IT company, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), was recently jolted by the uncovering of a recruitment scandal. The Tata group company, which reported a profit jump of 17% to Rs 11,074 crore earlier this week for Q1 (April-June 2023 quarter), had been in the headlines amid reports of the massive scandal that was taking place at the IT firm.

TCS CEO Opens Up About The Bribe For The Job Scandal

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And now, the company's new CEO has opened up and spoken about the 'bribe for job' scandal, saying it was a one-off code of conduct violation and not a "systemic failure," said CEO and MD K Krithivasan, 58, added that the incident was swiftly dealt with and has had no impact on relationships with clients.

This scandal was the first of its kind to hit TCS and came shortly after K. Krithivasan took over as the company¡¯s CEO on June 1.

TCS, which has a Rs 12.44 trillion market cap at present, last month saw a $2 billion deal cancellation even as it won two large projects in the quarter totaling over $2.5 billion. And the company is hopeful that clients will continue to invest in technology projects for efficiency in the short term and growth in the long term.

Also Read: The Untold Story Of TCS' First CEO & Co-founder F. C. Kohli

"Difficult To Detect It In A 6 lakh People Company"

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When asked about the rocky start to his tenure as CEO amid the recruitment scandal and a $2 billion deal cancellation, TCS CEO said, "The positive side was the speed with which we took action (in the recruitment matter) because these are not systemic failures. There are systems in place that are being reviewed by multiple people. A code of conduct violation happened. A code of conduct violation in a 6-lakh-person organisation is very difficult to detect. Even if I look at all the data in my system, I will not be able to capture it. And because we took action, it came into the public domain, it's not the other way around. Yes, it should not happen. Our core values are very important to us."

"I don't think it has left any negative impression on the associates themselves. They're happy that we took action and changed the head of the function. We have a completely new person looking at the whole thing. So, we have sent the right message across the organisation that we don't tolerate this."

Also Read: Read TCS New CEO K Krithivasan's First Email To Employees

TCS Clients Not Worried About The Scandal?

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It does not seem that TCS' clients got concerned amid the scandal's reports, as per what the TCS CEO said. He mentioned "In fact, to be honest, not many clients even bothered to ask us what happened because we've been very transparent. Our chairman was very transparent about this at the AGM. The clients are happy that we took action. If we had not taken action, then the clients would be unhappy."

Also Read: TCS Confirms Plan To Build Its Own ChatGPT Like AI Tool

What The Rs 100 Crore Job Scandal Was?

Last month, this scandal at TCS was uncovered by a whistleblower. Two executives aware of the developments had reportedly said that a whistleblower, in a communication to TCS¡¯s CEO and COO, alleged that E.S. Chakravarthy, the global head of TCS¡¯s resource management group (RMG), the company¡¯s recruitment division, had been accepting commissions from staffing firms for years.

One of the two executives cited above said people involved in the scam may have earned at least Rs 100 crore through commissions. Click here to learn more.

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