TCS names new head of hiring amid probe

Bribery investigation leads to 15 sackings and ban on 8 firms

- Varun Sood & Devina Sengupta

MUMBAI, BENGALURU: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) Ltd has named a new head to oversee the hiring of temporary workers amid an internal probe into the bribes-for-jobs scandal that has led to the sacking of at least 15 executives and the blacklisting of eight staffing firms.

India’s largest IT services company has entrusted Sivakumar Viswanathan, a veteran of about 30 years, as the new head of the Resource Management Group, or RMG, an executive privy to the development said. RMG oversees the hiring of contract workers and internally deploys people to projects.

TCS, the country’s largest private sector employer, has sacked 15 people from the RMG divisions in the US, Canada, and India’s Bengaluru and Hyderabad, the executive said, as the company looks to weed out people who took commissions from staffing firms, compromising the recruitment process.

Mint could not ascertain the names of staffing firms that the company has banned.

TCS is also in the middle of a detailed audit of all the staffing firms it engages with, asking its recruitment arm that hires temporary workers to share details of all contract workers, according to a second executive who also declined to be identified.