Civil servants have given IT company Ordina confidential documents which gave it an unfair advantage in winning government contracts, according to television current affairs show Zembla.

Zembla bases its claims on a whistleblower and a USB stick full of company information, addresses and emails. Most of the items date from 2005 and 2010 and show how business was being done.

For example, a Rotterdam civil servant gave Ordina information about a tendering process for a software project worth tens of millions of euros in 2009. Rotterdam has begun an investigation into the case and suspended one civil servant, Zembla says.

IND

Another project involved a contract for the immigration service. Justice minister Ivo Opstelten has asked the consumer authority ACM to investigate this.

A third case involves a tendering process in Rotterdam in which Logica CMG, CapGemini and Ordina divided up the market in agreement with city officials.

The Zembla programme will be broadcast on Thursday night. Professor Chris Jansen told the show there are similiarities between this and the construction sector fraud of 2001.

‘Companies operating in the same sector have made agreements, with or without the knowledge of the government, to divide up contracts between themselves,’ he said.

That scandal also came to light following a whistleblower’s revelations.

According to the Volkskrant, an investigation into the claims at Ordina by law firm De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek has not turned up any irregularities. The investigation was launched this summer after Zembla approached the company about the allegations.