Volkswagen Group will not be excluded from public sector contracts in the United States following its emissions scandal but will install a second U.S. monitor at its German headquarters.
The conditions are part of the latest agreement reached between the automaker and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) about VW's business in the United States after the company in 2015 admitted using illegal software in its diesel vehicles to cheat U.S. pollution tests.
The scandal triggered a global backlash against diesel vehicles that has so far cost VW 30 billion euros ($33 billion) in fines, penalties and buyback costs.
Volkswagen said the agreement entails the prequalification of VW for public sector contracts, in exchange for installing a new monitor for up to three years in a process due to begin this autumn.
"This deal recognizes the comprehensive measures that our company has been taking since 2015 to strengthen our compliance and risk management. It allows our subsidiaries to continue to do business with U.S. authorities," VW said in an internal statement to managers, made available to Reuters.
German business daily Handelsblatt was first to report VW's latest agreement with the EPA on Monday.
The agreement is important for VW's MAN Energy Solutions subsidiary which produces big diesel engines, some of which are used by the U.S. Navy and coastguard, while the group's general activities in the U.S. public sector are small, the spokesman said.
Since 2017, VW has been disclosing legal violations around the test manipulations to an external compliance monitor, Larry Thompson, a former deputy U.S. attorney general, and taking steps to change compliance and conduct. Thompson employed up to 100 specialists at one stage.
The second monitoring process, to be led by John Hanson of Artifice Forensic Financial Services, would be smaller in reach, less staff-intensive and less comprehensive than Thompson's.
Hanson could take Thompson's findings as a basis, the VW spokesman said. Both men are former employees of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) which Thompson used to serve as director in an earlier role.
