Why did Bell Labs appoint a committee to investigate some of the claims made by its scientists?

Investigators from Bell Labs in Murray Hill, New Jersey have found that claims made by some scientists at the laboratory were not based on fact. The investigators dismissed results from a number of studies published between 1998 and 2001. Bell Labs appointed a committee to investigate the wrongdoing after other scientists raised questions about the claims. Some of the claims were once said to be major developments in the study of physics. They included a claim that the scientists had created the smallest device to carry electrical current ever made.
    The committee identified at least sixteen examples of scientific wrongdoing. It placed the blame on one Bell Labs physicist, Jan Hendrik Schon (YAHN HEN-drick SHERN). Mister Schon told the committee that he had no written records of the laboratory experiments. He also said much of the information in his computer had been destroyed.
    The investigators found that Mister Schon used information from earlier work to support his findings. They said he did this without the knowledge of the other scientists involved in the experiments. The investigators noted that Mister Schon and his group produced an average of one scientific paper every eight days. For most scientists, a few papers a year is considered productive.
    After the committee’s report was released, Bell Labs immediately dismissed Jan Hendrik Schon from his position. He was once thought to be a future Nobel Prize winner. After his dismissal, Mister Schon admitted he had made mistakes in his scientific work. He said he regretted those mistakes.