The Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Climate Foundation has awarded 119 contracts worth 174 million euros to 80 service providers for the completion of the Nord Stream 2 Baltic Sea pipeline. After a long legal dispute, the foundation made the figures available to “Welt am Sonntag” and “Bild”.
The Rokai GmbH based in Rostock was the biggest beneficiary. This had operated a logistics center for the project in the city port and received an order worth 36 million euros.
The Gazprom group provided the money
According to the “Welt am Sonntag”, the foundation for the work on the pipeline set up an economic business operation (wG) that was settled after Russia’s attack on Ukraine. The Gazprom subsidiary Nord Stream 2 AG (NS2) provided the funds for this.
In addition, NS2 AG received the second highest order with a sum of over 31 million euros. The Italian Stone Societa Cooperative follows with three orders and 20 million euros. The foundation bought a special ship for dumping work in the Baltic Sea from the company.
The “Welt am Sonntag” systematically evaluated the information on awarding the contracts. It is suspected that in several cases the standards of good and responsible corporate governance were disregarded. Conflicts of interest are also evident in some cases. This was already stated by the foundation’s auditors in their report for the 2021 financial year. Reference was made therein to “transactions with related companies and persons”.
The CEO of the Climate Foundation, Erwin Sellering, did not answer questions from “Welt am Sonntag” about the business. His task was to control the boss of the wG, Steffen Petersen. He kept his previous position as managing partner of the Hamburg consulting company Cylad Consulting GmbH.
The company denies nepotism
Therefore, the award of the contract by the Climate Foundation’s wG to Cylad with a total volume of 1.3 million euros should be viewed critically. The company said in a statement: “We ask for your understanding that we do not publicly comment on activities and contracts that do not relate to our company and/or are subject to agreed confidentiality.” Cylad’s relationships with the foundation have withstood compliance checks and have been appraised by auditors: “As a result, it was expressly stated that there were no objections.”
As head of flats, Petersen also placed an order worth 6.2 million euros with his brother Lasse’s Hamburg-based BOS Baustoff- und Off-Shore Service GmbH. As a result, the company climbed to number 8 in the list of the largest contractors. In 2020, according to calculations by the credit rating agency Creditreform, the company only had total assets of around 66,000 euros.
At the request of “Welt am Sonntag”, the company said via a press lawyer: “If you suspect nepotism in this case, then you are on the wrong track.” The balance sheet total given by Creditreform was higher, the order volume reported by the foundation was lower. He did not give exact figures. (tsp)
