Irregularities in siding funding

Numerous Swiss companies operate sidings so that freight cars can run from the public rail network directly onto private company premises. The federal government supports the construction of sidings with financial aid. Based on the Freight Transport Ordinance, the Federal Office of Transport (FOT) reclaims the investment contributions on a pro rata basis if certain contractually agreed transport volumes are not achieved or the track is not used.

On February 28, 2020, the FOT explained that there were indications that transport volumes had not been correctly registered in a FOT database in recent years and that certain reclaims had thus not been asserted against siding operators. The FOT also called in the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland and immediately started to investigate the matter.

Criminal assessment follows

In the meantime, the internal investigations have been completed. These have shown that the Confederation has probably incurred losses of around CHF 1.5 million (including interest). This is mainly because reclaims were not initiated and are now time-barred. In other cases that are not yet time-barred, the FOT has immediately initiated recovery proceedings amounting to just under CHF 0.3 million.

In the meantime, the FOT has reviewed the siding financing processes and implemented measures to improve procedures and controls. These include, for example, the complete documentation of the individual procedures or the clarification of procedural issues. The FOT has handed over the results of the work on the criminal law assessment to the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland.

Press release BAV