With corruption charges swirling around Siemens AG for more than a year in one of the biggest corporate scandals in German history, the writing was on the wall. If the electronic engineering conglomerate did not install automated technology to continuously monitor critical financial transactions and detect irregularities, and install it quickly, it would also be locking horns with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Department of Justice.

With so much at stake, Siemens turned to ACL Services Ltd. for help. The Vancouver, B.C.-based provider of automated business assurance software for auditors is collaborating with Siemens to customize ACL transaction monitoring technology for use on a massive scale. Siemens wants to avoid even the appearance of impropriety after charges that the company was channeling illegal payments into slush funds to pay for kickbacks and bribes led to a massive European Commission fine earlier this year.

With continuous monitoring solutions that warn executives about suspicious and inconsistent transactions, Siemens might have avoided the humiliation and expense of the corruption scandal, says John Verver, ACL vice president of alliances and products. The technology that Siemens is now implementing supports governance, risk and compliance activities and ensures the integrity of internal controls and the transactions underlying key business processes, Verver says.