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Abellio Chief Boss Fired for Fraud

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Simon11

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Could this mean them pulling out the GA franchise bidding process and could anything happen to their existing franchises?

http://www.ns.nl/over-ns/nieuwscentrum/persberichten#huges-per-direct-uit-functie-bij-ns

Google (very poor) translation below:
Google translation of article said:
New facts in the investigation into the irregularities in Qbuzz shed a different light on earlier statements by CEO Huges on the contacts he has had during the investigation with directors of Qbuzz. Previously, Mr. Huges subject made other statements to investigators. These inaccurate and incomplete statements to the Supervisory Board (SB) reason to withdraw their confidence in Mr. Huges, which the State has accepted as a shareholder. Subsequently, Mr. Huges it drawn its conclusions and offered his resignation. Mr Huges no severance pay is given. CFO Robbe temporarily perceives as CEO of NS.

NS late April made public an interim report following an investigation by the law firm De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek. This showed that at Qbuzz during the bidding for the public transport concession in Limburg, a former employee of Veolia through a sham construction was employed. This employee also has shared confidential business information from Veolia. Against the drivers concerned have been taken directly from Qbuzz disciplinary action.

Some of laid off drivers claimed the CEO of NS was aware of the irregularities. They also claimed to have been instructed not to cooperate fully with the investigation. From the information that has subsequently become available is significant doubt whether the statements made by Mr Huges about correct and complete. The Supervisory Board then lost confidence in Mr. Huges and the state as a shareholder has consented to this. Mr Huges has it drawn its consequence and offered his resignation. Mr Huges no severance pay is given.

Also resulting from the ongoing investigation on similar grounds Mr. Hoogesteger, CEO of Abellio Holding on laid off and removed from office without that there will be any compensation. Mr. Robbe also takes temporary charge as CEO of Abellio Holding.

In the letter dated April 28, 2015 to the Minister of Finance on this investigation, the Supervisory Board stated that the nature of the case could not be ruled out that further insights would come to light; considered to be the just and necessary measures were taken when the facts disclosed by the former research; and will consider the case of new insights for further action discussed. That remains valid even now. The further from the study became available facts do not affect the validity of the measures taken in April. They do justify further, drastic measures today. In addition, they give rise to further research. This investigation will continue until this affair is above the lower stone.

In parallel, it started in April, comprehensive action program for the effectiveness of internal procedures, risk management, compliance and internal control NS group wide and put in force, including the appointment of a director at the group responsible for governance, risk and compliance. This approach will be maintained until there is a strong belief that NS lessons learned full and the case is in order.
 
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Wivenswold

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Interesting, wonder if anything will be done about AGA defrauding taxpayers by funnelling fares through their Luxembourg subsidiary?
 

route:oxford

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Interesting, wonder if anything will be done about AGA defrauding taxpayers by funnelling fares through their Luxembourg subsidiary?

Defrauding, or perfectly legal accounting?

I wonder what The Sturgeon & Co will have to say about this...
 

HowardGWR

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In the above article, the 'drivers' aren't drivers. it's a faulty translation of 'bestuurders' which can mean 'drivers' but also means 'managers' or 'directors', which is of course is what is meant in this case.
 

Quakkerillo

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Problem is that the Dutch rail network is divided in two groups:
1) Core network, ran by the NS (Dutch railways)
2) Secondary lines, ran by various franchises (Connexxion, Arriva, Veolia, and the NS-owned Syntus/Abellio).

The whole network is owned and maintained by ProRail (who franchise areas/lines for maintenance), while all stations are owned and maintained by the NS. Franchises have to pay NS money every year for the services.

The NS also tries to win the franchises for rail, which they did for Alphen a/d Rijn - Gouda, and tried in Limburg.
Issue here is that some Veolia employee/manager (Veolia currently runs the Limburg franchise) gave info to Abellio, and was hired by Abellio. This was against the rules, and saw Abellio retreat from the franchise after already having won it.

Furthermore, it now surfaced that the other bidders' information, which had been sent to the NS headquarters, asking for information about costs, rules, etc. about the use of the NS stations was relayed by the board of directors to Abellio, which is also against the rules.

So two different things went wrong at the same time. Hiring someone who has 'secret' info, and the NS directors handing 'secret' info to its daughter company.

As this is a Dutch-only case, with NS owning the stations, and therefor having special info, I doubt it'll influence the UK franchises. Here, they have no secret information, and are just another company trying to get some stuff.
 

JaJaWa

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Could those with a hatred of Abellio on Twitter have been on to something... :roll:
 

Bletchleyite

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Problem is that the Dutch rail network is divided in two groups:
1) Core network, ran by the NS (Dutch railways)
2) Secondary lines, ran by various franchises (Connexxion, Arriva, Veolia, and the NS-owned Syntus/Abellio).

It's interesting given that NS is such a small network it might as well be one UK TOC. I wonder does this practice of microfranchising individual lines actually improve efficiency or service, or might they as well just create a "NS plc" or indeed franchise the whole thing to one operator?
 

chubs

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Qbuzz is a bus operator, a subsidiary of NS.

Are they even talking about trains here or the local bus franchise?
 

Quakkerillo

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Qbuzz is a bus operator, a subsidiary of NS.

Are they even talking about trains here or the local bus franchise?

The Limburg franchise contains all bus services in the province, as well as local trains Nijmegen-Venlo-Roermond, Roermond-Maastricht Randwyck, Maastricht Randwyck-Heelen-Kerkrade, and Sittard-Heerlen.

It's interesting given that NS is such a small network it might as well be one UK TOC. I wonder does this practice of microfranchising individual lines actually improve efficiency or service, or might they as well just create a "NS plc" or indeed franchise the whole thing to one operator?

Some franchises are indeed very small. Dordrecht-Geldermalsen in 12-stops, mostly single-line diesel-operated. Amersfoort-Ede Wageningen is 8 stops, diesel-operated. Zutphen-Hengelo-Bad Bentheim (D) is only 7 stops.

The idea was that the main core network is of such vital importance, that it's best kept in state hands, and is "directly awarded". To make sure the smaller lines aren't neglected, these are being franchised, in the hope that companies will invest more here. Because for the national franchise, the importance of frequent services in Groningen is much less important than maintaining the massive service levels around the Randstad.
However, the idea is showing many signs of failure.
 

zuriblue

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Qbuzz is a bus operator, a subsidiary of NS.

Are they even talking about trains here or the local bus franchise?

The bus franchise in Limburg.

A good explanation here

http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/...resigns-in-wake-of-qbuzz-bidding-scandal.html

NETHERLANDS: Timo Huges resigned as Chief Executive Officer of national passenger operator NS with immediate effect on June 5, after the supervisory board withdrew its confidence as further details emerged about the irregularities in the QBuzz subsidiary’s bid for the Limburg operating contract.

No severance payment will be made. Huges has been replaced on an interim a basis by Chief Financial Officer Engelhardt Robbe.
 

JaJaWa

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There's another issue mentioned on some of them about Abellio staff leaking the specs for new train orders to Bombardier.
 

chubs

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The bus franchise in Limburg.

A good explanation here

I thought it was the bus services but didn't realise it involved some local rail as well.

I wonder if anything will come to light about the recent QBuzz takeover of GVU's routes in Utrecht after QBuzz won that franchise.
 

Olaf

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The main problem not highlighted so far, is that this case illustrates one of the problems of allowing public sector bodies to compete against private sector businesses for the same business while the former has access to privileged resources and information.
 

Quakkerillo

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The main problem not highlighted so far, is that this case illustrates one of the problems of allowing public sector bodies to compete against private sector businesses for the same business while the former has access to privileged resources and information.

Not only that, the public body in this case has to get information from the competition (their plans), to be able to tell them if it's feasible, and what it'd cost.
The bosses who have to get this info, and process it, are the same who head the daughter company who tries to get the franchise.
So their left side of the brain is not allowed to know what the right side knows. Of course that's going to go wrong at some point.
 

185

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Quite surprised British-based Jeff Hoogesteger has been kicked out, does make you wonder what's been going on behind the scenes. Annoying, as unusually for someone so high up, I didn't mind Jeff, he was a rarity amongst some extremely drab people.
 

XC90

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I wonder if he will be staying in Scotland or heading back to Holland. He announced he was moving to Edinburgh when abellio won the scotrail franchise.
 

Class 170101

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Well surprise Surprise the RMT have had their say
https://www.rmt.org.uk/news/rmt-demands-public-inquiry-into-abellio/

RMT said:
RMT demands public inquiry into Abellio
10 June 2015

RMT Press Office

RMT demands public inquiry ‎by UK and Scottish Governments into Abellio after scandal rocks Dutch rail outfit.

RMT has written to the UK and Scottish Governments calling for a full inquiry into the involvement of the Dutch state railways subsidiary, Abellio, in rail contracts on the Anglia and Northern rail franchises and the Scottish Government’s Scotrail franchise.

The call comes after it was revealed that the Chief Executive of Dutch railways has resigned in a scandal relating to a new contract to provide trains in Holland, with reports of dawn raids on Dutch railways and the Dutch government questioning how the company and some of its senior officials have been operating.

The scandal has also seen the removal of and an investigation into the chief executive of Abellio who are bidding to take over the Northern Rail and Anglia franchises and who last year were awarded the lucrative Scotrail franchise by the Scottish Government.

General Secretary Mick Cash said;
“If the Dutch Finance Minister believes the whole culture in Dutch state railways /Abellio is wrong and needs to change, RMT believes there needs to be a full inquiry and for it to be clearly shown that there was nothing irregular with the award of the Scotrail franchise to Abellio or in respect of Abellio bidding for the Northern and Anglia franchises”.

Ends
 

HH

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There's another issue mentioned on some of them about Abellio staff leaking the specs for new train orders to Bombardier.

Seems highly unlikely. The only trains Abellio have bought were from Hitachi.

--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Not only that, the public body in this case has to get information from the competition (their plans), to be able to tell them if it's feasible, and what it'd cost.
The bosses who have to get this info, and process it, are the same who head the daughter company who tries to get the franchise.
So their left side of the brain is not allowed to know what the right side knows. Of course that's going to go wrong at some point.

Theoretically we have the same position when the incumbent bids for a franchise. The bidding team is supposed to be at arms length from the operating TOC, e.g. the DfT assured bidders on TSGN that FirstGroup were not in a privileged position regarding the new Rolling Stock agreement (TRSP) because they had no access to the information (I mean FCC wouldn't tell them now, would they?)!

--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Quite surprised British-based Jeff Hoogesteger has been kicked out, does make you wonder what's been going on behind the scenes. Annoying, as unusually for someone so high up, I didn't mind Jeff, he was a rarity amongst some extremely drab people.

Jeff was based in Holland when this went down. In any case he was in charge of Abellio at the time. If he didn't know what was going on then he damn well should have.

TBH I liked Jeff, but he wasn't the brightest star in the sky.

I hear that not only are RMT suggesting that they need looking into, but National Express are demanding "a recount" in Scotland as well. UK Abellio staff are in a state of shock at the moment.

I wonder whether the decision to bid for EA with Stagecoach was driven by this?
 
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HilversumNS

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Seems highly unlikely. The only trains Abellio have bought were from Hitachi.

On the link posted by the OP http://www.ns.nl/over-ns/nieuwscentrum/persberichten#huges-per-direct-uit-functie-bij-ns there is another press release with the headline "Consultant verkocht vertrouwelijke NS-informatie aan Bombardier" which translates to "Consultant sold confidential NS information to Bombardier"

The 1st paragraph reads:
NS has announced that an investigation has established that an external consultant, in mid 2012, provided confidential information to an employee of Bombardier. Also, it was established that this consultant received €7000 for this. NS has strict standards regarding integrity. The observed practices are unacceptably for NS and in flagrant violation of its principles.

I just did a quick literal translation, rather than polishing it into everyday English, but you will get the gist.

I can translate the rest if needed.
 
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HH

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Ah that's NS. And it was an external consultant. In 2012. Doesn't seem to be a connection that I can see; looks more like simple coincidence.

Of course you could argue that it is indication of corruption in Holland, or Dutch railways in particular, but having met a number of Dutch railwaymen, I wouldn't give it much credence.
 

Class 170101

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Seems highly unlikely. The only trains Abellio have bought were from Hitachi.

But they will be looking at new trains for their Northern Franchise yet to be purchased. Doubtless in a similar vein new trains will be part of the Greater Anglia ITT as well, if recent DfT form is anything to go by.
 

HH

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But they will be looking at new trains for their Northern Franchise yet to be purchased. Doubtless in a similar vein new trains will be part of the Greater Anglia ITT as well, if recent DfT form is anything to go by.

Yes, but that's for the future and this was 2012. But irrelevant anyway as it turns out it wasn't Abellio at all. Or even NS. They were sinned against rather than sinners in that instance.

With regard to the one that was Abellio, I'd really like to know what happened, because NS are very risk averse and what they did was very risky. I suspect it might have been a case of trying to cover up after the event rather than condoning it in the first place. Still an error of judgement, but one that would make more sense given the sort of politics in a publicly owned company.
 
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