by our industrial reporter @TrinderMatt

RAIL union RMT slammed the investigation into the Southeastern financial debacle today as a “fatally compromised farce” in which the public can have no confidence. 

Services were effectively nationalised last month after rail operator Govia was stripped of the franchise due to its failure to declare more than £25 million of taxpayer funding.

But in a letter to RMT general secretary Mick Lynch, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps confirmed that his department’s “independent” review is being led by chairs of the companies involved in the scandal. 

Mr Shapps also told the union that the results of the review will inform the decision as to whether Govia will be allowed to continue running Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern services. 

RMT called on the public accounts committee to examine the Department for Transport’s (DfT) actions and reiterated its demand that ministers strip Govia of all services and run them as operator of last resort.

Mr Lynch said: “The government has accused this company of breaching financial good faith to the tune of at least £25m, stripped it of its franchise and admitted that there may be more to uncover, yet unbelievably, it’s quite content to let them effectively investigate themselves.

“To make matters worse, these groups have a material interest in clearing themselves to make sure they keep their last franchise[s].

“This is totally irresponsible and either means the government doesn’t want anything else to come out or that they’ve got no confidence that their officials could uncover the truth even if they tried.”

A DfT spokesperson said: “The government took decisive action to take control of [Southeastern] services, making it unequivocally clear that we will not accept anything less from the private sector than a total commitment to their passengers and absolute transparency with taxpayer support.

“The Department continues to work through these issues as a priority and are closely monitoring the ongoing investigations.

“We have a commitment to protect taxpayers’ interests and following these investigations, the government will consider the full range of options for enforcement action or further investigations.”