OREANDA-NEWS. November 16, 2015. With the Volkswagen emissions scandal still fresh in the memory, and with the repercussions of it likely to unfold for several months to come, the aluminium business could now be rocked by a scandal much closer to home.

Late on Monday came the astonishing admission from US extruder Sapa Profiles that test results over a period of 19 years for mechanical properties of some aluminum extrusions manufactured at SPI facilities in Portland, Oregon, were altered to show they passed when, in fact, they failed.

“Specifically, we have learned that some test results for mechanical properties — ultimate tensile strength, yield strength, and elongation — have been altered to change failing test results to passing test results between 1996 and 2015,” Sapa said in a statement on its website, dated November 9.

It further describes this as an “unsanctioned practice” which is “completely unacceptable.” And, it says, the employees concerned have been terminated. For SPI, the investigation relates to aluminum extrusions manufactured in 2000 and 2002 and delivered to a supplier to NASA.

The US Department of Justice Civil Division is now investigating some government suppliers, including SPI’s Technical Dynamics Aluminum division, based in Vancouver, Washington. SPI has been temporarily suspended as a US federal government contractor since September 30 as a result of these investigations.

These scandals are salutary reminders to not get sucked into companies’ claims that their products are cleaner, safer, stronger, better and more rigorously tested than anything else out there on the market.

Unfortunately, for the public and governments that depend on the products of such companies, these scandals prove that we live in a world today where no statement, written or verbal, from any commercial organization, can be taken at face value.

That is a real problem when a consumer is buying a product made of parts and materials they might depend on to save their lives one day.

Sapa Extrusions North America is undergoing audits, with support from a third-party expert, to verify all its “testing labs meet both industry standards as well as our customers’ requirements,” the company’s statement said.

The VW and Sapa scandals should serve as big wake-up calls to the CEOs of every manufacturing company and government contractor to the very real possibility that such scandals could exist within their own organizations.

CEOs who spend more time sweet-talking Wall Street or catering to stakeholders rather than understanding the inner workings and practices of their factory floors will run afoul of governments if it means more planes crash, more ships sink, more carnage on the roads, compromised defense equipment, or devastating environmental consequences.