Washington, D.C. - Today Oversight and Government Reform Committee Ranking Member Elijah E. Cummings and Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Henry A. Waxman sent a letter to Wal-Mart CEO Michael Duke regarding the company’s failure to provide Congress with information relating to the Wal-Mart bribery allegations.
In the letter, the members state: “you have provided us with no documents, you have declined to allow any Wal-Mart employees to brief our staffs about the allegations, and you have failed to respond to our request to speak with Maritza Munich, a key figure in the investigation." The company’s outside counsel provided a general briefing of Wal-Mart’s program to comply with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and revealed that Wal-Mart’s investigation of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act compliance-related issues extended beyond Mexico and was global in nature. Yet, the attorneys declined to answer any questions about potential violations of the Act or the recent specific allegations of bribery in Mexico, and they refused to provide the Committee staff with any information about the findings and recommendations from their global review.
On June 13, Wal-Mart’s outside counsels will be providing staffs with a briefing on the investigative protocols the company used to examine the bribery allegations in Mexico, yet the company has informed staff that no Wal-Mart officials will be present at this briefing. Ranking Members Cummings and Waxman are urging Wal-Mart’s CEO to allow company officials to speak directly about the serious allegations that Wal-Mart may have violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
The full text of the letter is available online here.
