Ssangyong Motor has once again dismissed allegations that it sought to lay off employees by rigging its financial statements in 2009. The carmaker pledged to increase its focus on continuing recent sales momentum.
Some opposition lawmakers and labor groups have claimed that Ssangyong fabricated its financial statements and omitted its assets to build up artificial factors, leading to large-scale restructuring when the company was placed under court receivership four years ago.
Although the court and the financial authorities have already cleared the accounting fraud allegations, they brought up another claim early this month that some figures in the two submitted audit reports did not match.
Following the new allegation, both ruling and opposition parties recently agreed to create a subcommittee under the National Assembly’s Environment and Labor Committee to further discuss the issue.
Employees inspect vehicles at Ssangyong Motor’s Pyeongtaek factory in Gyeonggi Province. (Ssangyong Motor)
Ssangyong, however, fully denied the allegation, saying that politicization of the issue did not help the company’s revival that was also crucial for a new round of reinstatement of voluntary retirees.
Largely boosted by a recent recovery of its sports utility vehicles, the company last month resumed the night-shift work system after a four-year hiatus, reinstating some 400 workers who had been on unpaid leave since 2009.
“The so-called ‘new evidence of accounting fraud’ that was presented by some lawmakers is nothing but a presumption arising from a misunderstanding,” said a Ssangyong official.
“The previous allegations regarding accounting fraud were already found to be invalid through an in-depth investigation by the Financial Supervisory Service in 2011-2012.”
Regarding some changes in the numbers, Deloitte Anjin, a local accounting service firm responsible for the Ssangyong case, said they were made while revising the preliminary report, not the final one.
“The final audit statement and the audit report are consistent in their figures,” Deloitte Anjin said in a statement.
In 2008, Ssangyong saw its annual car sales fall almost 30 percent from the previous year, pushed down further by the global financial crisis rippling from the United States.
“We already fully explained the situation during a parliamentary hearing last year. If there would be an unprecedented inspection into a private company, it would greatly hurt our brand value,” a Ssangyong official said.
But Ssangyong is pinning high hopes on some positive signs of recovery in its car sales in recent months.
Its car sales also soared 21 percent in the first five months this year to 56,602 vehicles compared to the same period last year.
Production, which hit bottom at 34,000 vehicles four years ago, also revived to 80,000 in 2010 and 110,000 in 2011. This year, the factory output is expected to reach some 140,000.
“From 2015 when a new compact SUV comes out, we aim for a turn around and to reinstate the voluntary retirees,” Ssangyong Motor CEO Lee Yoo-il said last month, urging full support from the public.
By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)