Volkswagen Blames Emissions-Cheating Scandal on Low-Level Technicians

Top-ranking Volkswagen officials on Friday cast blame for the company's large-scale diesel emissions-fixing scandal on a small number of unidentified and relatively low-level engineers and technicians.

In public statements issued at the company's headquarters in Wolfsburg, Germany, new CEO Matthias Muller condemned the "unlawful behavior of engineers and technicians involved in engine development."

Muller, former head of Porsche, took over after Martin Winterkorn resigned from the position of CEO earlier this week claiming he is "not aware" of any wrongdoing on his part.

The company built a software "defeat device" that allowed cars to cheat on emissions control tests and spew up to 40 times the level of pollutants legally permitted. The scandal is now known to have affected 11 million cars worldwide.

Echoing Muller, other top officials publicly condemned the lower-ranking workers they say are responsible.

Bernd Osterloh, chairperson of the company's work council who also sits on the executive committee, charged: "A small group has done damage to our company. We need a climate where mistakes are not hidden."

Berthold Huber, acting head of the company's supervisory board, stated: "The supervisory board has, on the basis of current information, recommended suspending some employees immediately until the whole case is cleared up." It is not immediately clear who faced disciplinary action.

"The test manipulations are a moral and political disaster for Volkswagen," Huber continued. "The unlawful behavior of engineers and technicians involved in engine development shocked Volkswagen just as much as it shocked the public."

Mother Jones political blogger Kevin Drum wrote Saturday that he is not buying the company's claims.

"This is ridiculous," Drum argued. "What incentive do low-level engineers and technicians have to do this on their own?"

"Hell, they couldn't even take on a project like this unless their managers OKed the time to do it, and their managers wouldn't do it unless they were being pressed by higher-ups," Drum continued. "Anybody who's ever worked at a big corporation knows this perfectly well."

Consumer advocates, meanwhile, are demanding that the company pay for the full environmental and social costs of its fraud, which they say belies broad irresponsibility across the auto industry.

"VW must still pay full penalties under law and grant full rebates to the customers it deceived into buying pollution-spewing cars that led to massive, undeserved profits," declared Ed Mierzwinski, consumer program director of U.S. PIRG, in a statement issued Wednesday.