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DSW
asked that a shareholder vote on an independent investigation be
included on the agenda for Volkswagen's (VW) annual general
meeting on June 22.
VW was not immediately available to comment.
In September, Europe's largest carmaker admitted it had cheated
diesel emissions tests in the United States.
"When you have an independent investigation you can be sure that
the findings will be publicized. With internal investigations
you do not know whether everything has been made transparent,"
DSW spokesman Juergen Kurz said on Monday.
VW has retained law firm Jones Day and has some 450 internal and
external experts looking at processes, reporting and control
systems to find those responsible for the scandal which has
already forced VW to set aside 16.2 billion euros ($18.2
billion) to pay for the scandal.
But Kurz said there was no guarantee small shareholders would
receive access to all of Jones Day's findings.
VW has created a Special Committee on Diesel Engines headed by
Wolfgang Porsche, head of the family clan which controls VW, to
investigate the scandal.
The company has declined to comment in detail about initial
findings of the probe, as part of which Jones Day is
interviewing managers and employees close to the diesel issue,
because it is not yet completed.
It said so far there were no signs that current management was
involved in the scandal but that there were process deficiencies
on the technical side as well as misconduct on the part of
unidentified individuals.
It has said it was reorganizing the processes and structures
used for approving the software for engine control units with
more clearly defined and binding responsibilities.
DSW acknowledged the chances of forcing an independent
investigation at VW were slim, given the company's large
shareholders - the Piech and Porsche families, which jointly
control 52 percent of VW voting rights - may not back the
proposal.
If that happens, DSW could try to win a court order to enforce
an independent investigation, DSW's Kurz said.
(Reporting by Edward Taylor; Editing by Mark Potter)
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