New Age writer Murat Agirel, in today’s article, gave details from the investigation report of the investigation into the bribery of one of the world’s largest software companies, Oracle, in Turkey, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and India. “The bribery scandal spread to Turkey with the news reflected in the foreign press. Millions of dollars of bribes were given to the officials of the SGK and the Ministry of Interior,” said Ağırel.
Noting that the firm accepted bribes and accepted a fine of 23 million dollars during the negotiations, Ağırel conveyed the following information:
“Oracle organizations based in Turkey and the United Arab Emirates have created false marketing requests to increase money in certain bribe pools, and the auditors of Oracle organizations in these countries have confirmed this. Oracle Turkey officials used the money accumulated here to bribe end users and cover travel expenses, completely contrary to company policy.
The money in this fund, which is called a pool, a piggy bank, was used for the travel expenses of many people, including foreign officials. Trips with families and children to places like Los Angeles and Napa Valley were paid, including the Oracle firm’s own tech conference.
Oracle Turkey officials and the country’s administrators also knew about these events and turned a blind eye. Considering how these schemes are implemented; Oracle lacks records of the size and extent of this bribery wheel.
In May 2018, Oracle Turkey and the Ministry of Interior reached an agreement for the system of the 112 Emergency Call Line. Oracle Turkey sales representative officials unethically planned a 1-week trip to California. The trip was probably paid for from this pool we’re talking about. 4 officials held a meeting with a senior Oracle official in Oracle headquarters for only 15-20 minutes. On the remaining days, Department of the Interior officials were hosted in Los Angeles and the Napa Valley for a week. Places such as Theme Park were toured.
On May 31, Oracle Turkey received a large order for the 112 Emergency Line. Since the travel expenses of Ministry of Interior officials were too high, Oracle Turkey officials felt the need to request an unusual discount from the headquarters. As the justification, it was shown that the budget of the Ministry of Interior was low and this reduction was necessary in order to compete with other companies. Oracle headquarters accepted this and was discounted. However, the Ministry of Interior’s demand for 112 was that it was an Oracle product, and there was no competitor.
The same Turkey sales representative who carried out the 112 project also bribed SGK officials in cash. A spreadsheet the sales rep kept was calculating how much margin he could make from each rebate claim for 6 months before the deal was struck. Three months before the agreement, an SGK official and sales representative met. The meeting was called “Big thinkers meet”. Turkey Oracle official again demanded a serious discount in order to finance the bribes in the SGK agreement. He said that there was a very intense sales and that it had to be competed with other companies. Headquarters again approved. Later, SGK tender records showed that the tender specification already required Oracle products. The money was used to increase the money in the bribe pool.
In 2017, the same Turkish sales representative created a bribe scheme, this time using authorized dealers. Again, a serious discount was made by the headquarters in the order to create a database infrastructure for SGK. As much as $1.1 million was involved, only a small fraction was spent on legitimate products like software.”
For Ağırel’s article published in Yeniçağ click.