Status: 11/26/2021 12:35 p.m.
Whistleblowers have unsuccessfully warned Deutsche Bahn of possible fraud in the major Stuttgart 21 project, according to a report in the Financial Times. Baden-Württemberg’s transport minister calls for clarification, the group rejects the allegations.
According to a report by the Financial Times (FT), two employees are said to have unsuccessfully warned Deutsche Bahn about corruption in the controversial major project Stuttgart 21. The two whistleblowers, former engineers involved in the project, alleged that some executives misused company funds and placed unnecessarily expensive contracts as part of a large-scale fraud in one of Europe’s largest infrastructure projects, according to the British daily. In the meantime, the Stuttgart public prosecutor is also examining the allegations.
The Baden-Wuerttemberg Transport Minister Winfried Hermann von den Grünen called for clarification and information from the group. “We pay almost a billion euros for the new line and almost a billion euros for Stuttgart 21. We are interested in knowing where the money is going and whether everything has been legitimately spent,” the politician said SWR. “It may be that there is something to it, but it can also be that there is nothing to it. But we want to be cleared up.”
Bahn rejects allegations
The web showed the report SWR-Request as “not applicable”. The company followed up on all the indications and checked them. No legal violations were found, said a spokesman. The accusation that whistleblowers were intimidated was “simply wrong”. This was also confirmed by a judgment of the labor court in Stuttgart on July 1.
One of the two employees, who are said to have leaked information to the compliance department several times in 2016, was dismissed during the investigation, according to “FT”. The second whistleblower broke off contact with the company’s internal investigators for fear of retaliation. The newspaper referred to documentary research and interviews with people familiar with the case.
The allegations are about possible fraud and related bribes. A significant part of the cost explosion of the project, which has been in the planning for 20 years, can be traced back to massive mismanagement and possible corruption. “An informant estimates that the alleged misconduct by Deutsche Bahn caused unnecessary costs of 600 million euros,” writes the “FT”. Initially, the relocation of Stuttgart main station underground and the new high-speed line from Wendlingen to Ulm should cost around 2.5 billion euros. The expenditure is now estimated at eight to twelve billion euros.
Costs of obfuscation?
Allegedly unnecessarily awarded contracts would have drawn a rat’s tail, according to the whistleblower, according to the report. As a result, the railway had costs so that the whole thing would not be exposed. This is evident from the relocation of the “Staatsgalerie” tram stop in Stuttgart: Normally, the costs could have been shared with the municipality; However, the whistleblowers had expressed the suspicion that those responsible wanted to avoid drawing attention to unnecessary expenditure.
Deutsche Bahn informed that SWR with the fact that the group had informed the investigating journalist several times that the railway did not have any documents from a whistleblower in which reference was made to damage of 600 million euros due to non-compliant awards. And further: “Various mechanisms are installed at DB Projekt Stuttgart-Ulm GmbH that effectively prevent incidents in the area of corruption and white-collar crime.”
The city of Stuttgart has also contacted the Ministry of Transport about the report. The railway has announced that it will inform the project partners as soon as possible. “From the point of view of the city, the reports do not reveal which measures are supposed to be involved. The report from Deutsche Bahn to the project partners is awaited.”