Dutch state-owned railway firm NS has suspended two managers at its Qbuzz/Abellio subsidiary in for their role in ‘serious irregularities’ concerning a public transport concession in Limburg.

The two are said to have accepted confidential information from a former worker at Veolia Transport Limburg which they used to win the right to provide public transport services in the province. Veolia was also competing for the concession.

According to Dutch media reports, Qbuzz hired the former Veolia worker as an intermediary for the tendering process even though he had a non-competition agreement with his former employer.

Abellio eventually won the contract to supply the bus services from 2016 to 2031.The value of the contract is put at €2bn.

NS said on Tuesday it had published the results of its investigation into the tendering process ‘in the interests of transparency’. However, the two directors told the Volkskrant the NS itself has encouraged the use of the Veolia employee and that his appointment was checked with the NS legal department.

Finance minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who is techically the NS’s only shareholder, described the situation as ‘completely unacceptable’ and said the company’s own internal controls had failed.