How will the hung parliament affect the government’s big spend infrastructure projects? Heathrow has been thrown into doubt amid concerns in Whitehall that they no longer have the numbers. HS2 is unfortunately full steam ahead thanks to support from the Labour benches. There is however another scandal brewing…
Hitachi’s procurement bid for rolling stock is being ultimately overseen by their rail boss Alistair Dormer, who is responsible for Hitachi’s worldwide rail business. Last year Dormer was involved in a messy dispute with the Italian rail regulator, which accused Hitachi of colluding to keep their bid for an Italian rail company artificially low. Dormer denied the allegations but it was a big scandal in Italy and Italian MPs were furious with Hitachi. Whitehall is already very twitchy about Hitachi over the behaviour of their other top execs. A few months ago HS2 had to scrap an £170 million contract after Guido exposed a series of conflicts of interest. Last thing they want is another difficult bidding process…
As the HS2 conflicts of interest row rumbles on, Guido can bring you the latest issue causing concern for officials in Downing Street. An industry day is being held today for companies to discuss the next major contract, for a rail manufacturer to build the actual trains. Among the bidders is Hitachi, the Japanese conglomerate. Hitachi employs as a consultant with a roaming brief one Kate Mingay, a former senior official at the Department for Transport. She has previous…
Back in 2012 Mingay was suspended by DfT after claims she mismanaged the West Coast rail fiasco. She became embroiled in a furious public row with the government, launched a legal challenge against DfT and was eventually reinstated after much acrimony and threats to take it to the High Court. It was major news at the time and very messy for ministers. Now Mingay helps run Hitachi-owned Italian rail company STS. There are quite a few people in government who thought they had seen the back of Mingay, until this HS2 contract came along…
