Federal Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer has the Bundestag apparently not only concealed that there were two secret meetings of his department with the managers of the operating consortium for the failed car toll. Scheuer had to grant on Tuesday five more talks of the Ministry top with representatives of the companies CTS Eventim and Kapsch.
The occasion was a deadline of the Greens, which call for clarification and a committee of inquiry in the toll-affair. First, the "Süddeutsche Zeitung" had reported on the additional appointments.
As follows from a letter from Transport State Secretary Steffen Bilger to the Green politicians Stephan Kühn and Sven-Christian Kindler, the unprecedented high-profile meetings took place between 3 October 2018 and 23 May 2019. The document from which the "Süddeutsche Zeitung" cites is available to SPIEGEL.
The ministry has neither informed the Bundestag about the meetings, nor are they documented in the toll files, according to the report.
Again it says: "Neither preparatory nor follow-up notes"
Similar to a few weeks ago, when SPIEGEL reported on two secret meetings in November 2018 and June 2019, the letter states that at four meetings there were "neither preparatory nor follow-up notes". Minister of Transport Scheuer therefore took part in three of the five now become known meetings, Chancellery head Helge Braun at one.
Apparently these took place in part "parallel to meetings at work level, which were officially reported to the Bundestag," writes the "Süddeutsche Zeitung".
After the failure of his car toll at the European Court of Justice, Scheuer had repeatedly emphasized that he wanted to exercise "perfect transparency" in working through the debacle.
Greens accuse Scheuer of breaking law and calling for his dismissal
The Green politicians Kühn and Kindler now accused Scheuer of becoming entangled in contradictions. "In a house where every visit to the construction site by Scheuer entails a meter of files, contract negotiations with bidders must have been recorded in a billion-dollar procurement procedure," it says in a joint statement.
The missing file notes are "a clear breach of law". Whoever lies to the Bundestag and deceives the public, "can not be a day longer Federal Transport Minister," said Kuhn and Kindler and asked Chancellor Angela Merkel to dismiss Transport Minister Scheuer. The Chancellor's Office is also obliged to contribute to the education.
