Responding to charges from the US government that it has acted improperly on the Polish market, Hewlett-Packard said this week that it would not be closing its operations in Poland. Instead, the IT giant has agreed to pay a $108m fine, as a part of a settlement agreement with the US Security Exchange Commision (SEC) and the US Ministry of Justice, which accused HP of bribing public officials in Poland, Russia and Mexico.
Following the corruption allegations, speculation emerged that HP may close its Polish subsidiary, which, according to SEC, has been “lacking internal control”. However, HP’s Clare Loxley denied this week that the company plans to close its Polish division and move to Slovakia. “There are no plans to liquidate HP in Poland, as well as the Global Business Centre of HP, located in the country,” said Loxley.
