Deutsche Bahn strives to draw conclusions from the debacle over dozens of consultant contracts that were awarded without the approval of the Group Supervisory Board. Thus, a contract still in progress until 2020 with the long-time consultant Edmund Schlummer is stopped, formerly CEO of the subsidiary DB Cargo. This reports the "Handelsblatt".
Schlummer, with a total of € 7.89 million in fees, was at the head of a total of 25 former railway managers who had advised the company against money after leaving the company. Chief railway inspector Michael Odenwald told the newspaper, until a final decision "the contract of Mr. Schlummer" rest. From this contract "no benefits would be called and certainly not paid".
"Provision of services at best to a small extent"
The "Handelsblatt" has received an investigation report prepared by the business consultancy EY - formerly Ernst & Young. The report covers 432 pages. This also includes the case of a former manager of the railway logistics subsidiary Schenker. According to "Handelsblatt" the man complained that his "economic existence" was endangered by a planned termination agreement.
He therefore asked the then board member Ulrich Weber if he could not work as a consultant for the group. In fact, he hired as a consultant for "internationalization of human resources" and got for it 374,850 euros. In return, he met, according to "Handelsblatt" once a month for half a day with board Weber - a dubious practice, as the EY-examiners comment: "A service could be found at best, to a small extent," it says in the report. The remuneration was "not customary".
EY was commissioned by the supervisory board to screen all consultancy contracts. According to the report, 57 of the 60 consultancy contracts investigated by the railway and its subsidiaries with former managers between 2008 and 2018 did not require the Supervisory Board to do otherwise than prescribed.