Federal Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer got an unpleasant appointment in the calendar on Friday morning. The Transport Committee in the Bundestag has invited him under pressure from the opposition to a special meeting. It is not about the accidental car toll, for which he must soon justify before a committee of inquiry.
This morning is about a matter as unpleasant as possible: the future of Deutsche Bahn. Scheuer wants to bless the company with billions of euros in order to achieve the climate protection goals of his ministry in the transport sector.
But the train is not only in a deep operational crisis with train cancellations and delays. To make matters worse, a dirty power struggle takes place on the board. Scheuer will probably also have to answer questions from the Members. Too right.
Because the CSU man plays a central role in the quarrels that have led for days to the fact that the board in the railway tower on Potsdamer Platz has virtually stopped all material work. The focus is on the Group's Chief Financial Officer, Alexander Doll, who is in the limelight with the two top dogs in the boardroom: the railway director Richard Lutz and Ronald Pofalla, the powerful infrastructure manager.
The wrong victim?
Transport Minister Scheuer wants to fire Chief Financial Officer Doll. It could be that he is wrong with that and instead more likely to bring the bearer of bad messages than the actual guilty party to the misery of the web.
Escalated is the affair just to a subsidiary of the railway, the British transport company Arriva. The company operates railways and buses both on the British Isles and in many other European countries, including a fleet of legendary red biplanes in London. The company is to be sold to plug the billions holes in the budget of the railway, either to an investor or by going public.
Doll had been busy with this procedure since the spring. And what he obviously found was not good: the company is actually a consolidation case. However, so far obviously nobody had informed the supervisory board and the owner.
Instead, the Arriva sale should be used as an elegant solution for stuffing your own budget holes. The sale was supposed to bring in three to four billion euros, according to the message from the railway tower. But there can be no question of that. Also because in 2011, when Arriva was bought, the company had issued a guarantee for the pension claims of many thousands of employees.
For the prospectus, Doll had to provide a value for this obligation, which turned out to be quite complex. It was only in the fall that the consultants assigned to it had come to a conclusion with how much money these obligations to book: 432 million euros.
That sum could now be fatal to the Frankfurt manager. The head of the Department of Transportation complains that Doll has not been properly informed about the extent of the plight. But how credible is that? Two people may have watched with secretly joy, as the CFO runs into the open knife: the Luge and Pofalla railroad grandees.
Did Doll know too much?
You have seen a competitor in the ambitious Finanz Doll. What's more, Doll posed a threat, especially to Lutz. Because as the CFO and successor to Lutz Doll got intimate insights into the books of the web - too intimate, as it may now turn out. What Doll discovered, among other things, were consultancy contracts concluded by the Board of Directors with ex-managers and politicians, without informing the Supervisory Board.
The scandal started because at the turn of the year 2019, the consultancy contract with an ex-board should be extended, without asking the supervisors in the group for permission. Doll raised an alarm on the board, and he then had the million-dollar bustle examined.
CEO Lutz said in the forensic investigation, to have known nothing of the escalating consultancy. Even though he had been responsible for Finance for almost ten years as a predecessor of Doll. The situation with the pension claims of Arriva employees is completely different. The delicate guarantee at the expense of the owner state Richard Lutz is said to have approved at the beginning of the decade.
The bad situation at Arriva should have hardly surprised Lutz also. As then CFO, he also oversaw Arriva's business. So he would have had a pretty good picture of the high investment needs of the UK subsidiary. Therefore, he should not have been particularly surprised that the previous offers from investors for Arriva remained far below expectations.
Finally, the prospective buyers could take a deep look into the books of the group. According to SPIEGEL information, they estimate the value of the company at less than two billion euros, less than the price paid for Arriva almost ten years ago.
Did Doll just know too much about what went wrong under his predecessor and today's boss Lutz - and should he leave? Bahn boss Lutz tried exactly that: Two weeks ago, he ordered Doll in his office and submitted to him a poisoned offer: He should only take care of the goods business, the financial sector.
A successor Lutz had already spied: The KfW banker Ingrid Hengster. But Doll refused. Since then, the tablecloth is cut between the three.
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The government can not really afford animosity between the three alpha animals. Because the railway was chosen as a savior for the completely misguided climate policy of the Federal Government and should be showered with billions for it. For a meaningful use of the funds but it requires a functioning board.
Cem Özdemir speaks of "stairway joke"
Scheuer has decided to fire Doll, even if he could be a pawn sacrifice. But he defends himself. He persistently refuses to sign the dissolution agreement. A first attempt to have him removed by the Supervisory Board, failed last Thursday. On Monday, supervisory board chief Michael Odenwald starts the next attempt at the behest of the Ministry of Transport.
Then a special meeting of the Supervisory Board has been convened to the Personalie Doll. Will the financier by then have signed the dissolution contract? Or is it a showdown?
The employee representatives have denied the Demission Dolls so far. They want to first clarify whether the allegations against the CFO apply or not. "We will listen on Monday and then we will give an answer," said the new head of the Railway Workers' Union, Torsten Westphal.
Financial Director Doll receives support from the opposition in the Bundestag. The chairman of the transport committee Cem Özdemir accuses Scheuer, to have decided for the wrong one: "it is already a joke, if the Minister einbrießt itself of Lord Doll, who has obviously revealed the problems with the Arriva and the structural problems want to tackle the DB. "
Özdemir suspects similar to Arriva still further financial risks in the railway. This question should clarify Scheuer, said the prominent Greens man the mirror. "Anyone who has obviously destroyed values in the Arriva, must also look in all areas in the books, if there are no other risks dormant."
If Özdemir's fears apply, then Lutz will not be at the top of the line for much longer.