The Norwegian oil fund, following a recomendation from its Council on Ethics, has banned investment in China's Dongfeng Motor company.

The rationale is that the company is supplying trucks to the Burmese military, so supporting a military dictatorship credited with widescale human rights abuse.

German engineering company Siemens is to be placed under close scrutiny by virtue of “gross and systematic corruption the group has been involved in over many years”. The fund owns 1.34% of Siemens stock as of the end of last year.

The Council on Ethics apparently recommended divestment now, so the Siemens statement is somewhat upbeat about the fact that the recommendation was not implemented. Bloomberg reports:

"Siemens “welcomes the decision by the Norwegian Royal Ministry of Finance for the first time not to follow the recommendation of the Council on Ethics and to remain invested in Siemens,” spokesman Marc Langendorf said in an e-mail. “Siemens has now implemented comprehensive measures in the area of compliance and established a long-term compliance culture.”

The Munich-based company has been embroiled in a bribery scandal since 2006, leading to investigations in at least a dozen countries. Units of the company have been charged with paying kickbacks and bribes to win contracts in Iraq’s government in the United Nations oil-for-food program and for projects including commuter rail in Venezuela, mobile-phone networks in Bangladesh, power plants in Israel and Russian traffic control."

The oil fund announcement, however, appears to suggest that going forward even a minor infraction by Siemens could trigger divestment.