MAASTRICHT - A new corruption affair in Limburg. More than a hundred investigators raided forty places yesterday, including four Limburg town halls and the governorate, to investigate bribery by a road construction company.In total, each person was arrested. They include six municipal officials (Maastricht, Stein, Nuth, Heerlen (2) and Sprijkenisse), one official of the province of Limburg, three officials of construction company Janssen de Jong Infra BV and a former manager of that company.

The officials are suspected of violating their official secrecy. They allegedly helped the construction company obtain confidential information about tenders. During the raids, about 100 moving boxes full of documents were seized and a large number of computer files were copied for examination. According to the prosecution, these included "a large number of documents from all suspicious projects in which the construction company has been involved in the past."

Janssen de Jong Infra employees allegedly bribed officials with cars, tickets to sporting events, concert tickets, luxury travel and exclusive dinners. In exchange for the gifts, they received information about the tendering of road works and sewer improvements from municipalities and provinces, the State Investigation Department suspects. Which projects were involved was not disclosed. Not only did the authorities involved receive a visit from the investigators, but the homes of the arrested officials were also searched. Furthermore, the national criminal investigation department raided the offices of Janssen de Jong Infra in Meerssen, Horst and Breda, and the homes of two employees in Landgraaf.

Company general manager Henk Cuppen did not want to comment on the raids and allegations last night. The lawyers of the suspects refused to comment last night. Spokesman Wim de Bruin of the National Prosecutor's Office does not rule out more arrests. There is no indication that politicians are also involved in the corruption scandal. The National Criminal Investigation Department came across the case about a year and a half ago when it was investigating another case. The authorities involved reacted with shock to the arrests. Governor Léon Frissen fears that the province's image will be damaged either way.