Legal complaint against PostBus will not be pursued

The illegal subsidies claimed by PostBus came to CHF80 million Keystone

The Office of the Attorney General’s and the public prosecutor of the Canton of Bern have declared that they do not have the competence to investigate the revelations of illegal subsidies in the ongoing PostBus scandal.

The two offices released a joint statement on Wednesday to announce that they would not be taking up the case, one week after the Federal Office of Transport (FOT) filed an official complaint.

For one of them to open judicial proceedings, sufficient suspicion of an infraction of the Swiss Criminal Code would have to exist; this is not the case, they said.

Rather, the charges invoked in the complaint – manipulating accounts to take advantage of CHF80 million ($85 million) in subsidies between 2007 and 2015 – fall under the system of administrative law.

This means that the competent authority to investigate is the relevant federal office; in this case the FOT. Spokeswoman Florence Pictet told the Swiss News Agency that the FOT was currently assessing the situation and considering possible next steps.

+ More on the breaking of the PostBus subsidies scandal

The PostBus scandal has been unfolding since earlier in February, when it emerged that a 2017 Transport Office audit discovered that PostBus – known for its alpine network of yellow commuter buses – had manipulated accounts to secure the federal and cantonal subsidies.

The PostBus CEO and chief finance officer were dismissed. Susanne Ruoff, boss of parent company Swiss post, received the backing of her Board of Directors last week.

An internal investigation is underway and hopes to provide answers by May. Swiss Post have promised that the illegal funds will be paid back in full to the federal and cantonal authorities.