IBM, HP allegedly implicated in Poland graft scandal: report

Global IT giants IBM and Hewlett-Packard have allegedly been implicated in a corruption scandal over a technology upgrade in Poland's public administration, the Rzeczpospolita daily reported Thursday.

Contacted by AFP, a spokesperson for Poland's CBA anti-graft police Jacek Dobrzynski refused to confirm or deny the report.

The CBA said Wednesday it had arrested a senior official at the country's national police headquarters and two managers from a Polish IT company, identified as NetLine by Rzeczpospolita. All are under investigation for bribery and corruption.

"The NetLine managers arrested yesterday were directly cooperating with international computer giants IBM and HP," Rzeczpospolita said.

Earlier this year, the CBA arrested several senior managers and two former IT company directors on allegations of corruption in public tenders, Dobrzynski said.

The Polish branches of IBM and HP both confirmed Thursday that they were cooperating with the ongoing corruption probe.

"Hewlett-Packard Polska is fully cooperating with Polish authorities within the framework of the ongoing investigation," HP spokesperson Anna Marciniak told AFP.

She also stressed that one of the suspects in the corruption case identified only as Tomasz Z. had "ceased to be an HP employee as of February 2010."

Meanwhile IBM Poland spokesman Tomasz Stachera told AFP Thursday the company was "aware of the press reports on the subject of a former IBM employee."

"We are taking this case very seriously and are cooperating with all the institutions in charge of the investigation. At this stage, we are not commenting on details," he said in an emailed statement.