DThe processing of the failed automobile toll has a authorized aftermath for the previous Federal Minister of Transport Andreas Scheuer (CSU). The Berlin public prosecutor’s workplace initiated an investigation against Scheuer and the previous Secretary of State for Transport Gerhard Schulz due to a potential false assertion within the investigative committee of the Bundestag, because the authority introduced on Tuesday. The “Spiegel” reported about it first.
Scheuer advised the German Press Company: “I testified honestly earlier than the investigative committee. There may be nothing so as to add. I’m firmly assuming {that a} assessment won’t come to any totally different conclusions both.”
The public prosecutor’s workplace in Berlin introduced that preliminary proceedings against Scheuer and Schulz had already been initiated on April 13 – on suspicion of false unsworn testimony earlier than the investigative committee. The process is predicated on a number of prison complaints from personal people.
Operator contracts concluded early
The automobile toll – a status venture of the CSU within the then black-red federal authorities – was stopped in June 2019 by the European Court docket of Justice as unlawful. A committee of inquiry had handled potential errors made by Scheuer. The primary criticism was that Scheuer concluded operator contracts for the automobile toll on the finish of 2018 – even earlier than there was remaining authorized certainty on the ECJ.
The investigations of the public prosecutor’s workplace are particularly about: Scheuer and Schulz are stated to have testified “intentionally untruthfully” in response to their recollection that there was no provide from the designated toll operator consortium to conclude the contract for the automobile toll at a time after the anticipated ECJ postpone judgment.
Managers of the working corporations truly meant for the automobile toll had reported such a suggestion to Scheuer within the investigative committee. Scheuer, however, advised the investigative committee initially of October 2020 that, so far as he might bear in mind, there was no such provide from the operators.
The failed automobile toll might nonetheless be costly for taxpayers. Because the meant operators CTS Eventim and Kapsch Trafficcom introduced on the finish of March, an arbitration court docket affirmed a declare for damages and reimbursement of bills against the Federal Republic. In a second section of the arbitration proceedings, the quantity of the declare will now be determined. The businesses are demanding 560 million euros. Instantly after the judgment of the ECJ, Scheuer terminated the operator contracts, amongst different issues as a result of that they had not fulfilled the contractual providers.
