Berlin Airport To Review Payments To Suppliers

The operator of Berlin's new Brandenburg airport will review payments made to Siemens, Bosch and a Deutsche Telekom unit to check there has been no overpayments made for their work.

German weekly newspaper Bild am Sonntag earlier said that legal experts considered payment rates on supplementary charges claimed for the companies' construction services were unusually high.

Siemens is said to have received 96 percent of a EUR€22.9 million (USD$25 million) claim, the paper cited as an example. The payment rate for T-Systems' claims was 99 percent, the paper said.

Siemens declined to comment on the issue, but said that in general it would investigate any indications of possible violations of laws and internal policies.

The review covers construction projects until mid-2012, the original opening date for the airport, the paper said.

The EUR€5.1 billion airport has been delayed repeatedly by red tape and technical problems, forcing its opening date to be pushed back to 2017.

The airport's operator said last week it could face further delays following the insolvency of Dutch engineering services group Royal Imtech's German division, which has been working on the project.