State budget - Accounting Court criticizes state government for mounting debt
The State Audit Office criticizes the increasing debt mountain in Saxony-Anhalt. The already massive debt mountain of the state had grown by around 422 million Euro to 22.88 billion Euro in the past year, criticized Rechnungshof-President Kay Barthel.
Per capita debt had risen to 10,491 Euro. In neighboring Saxony, per capita debt was only 3,193 Euro. "This is a clear indicator that the state government cannot get a handle on the rapid increase in spending," said Barthel.
One observes that the state government finances its budget only through new debts. Since 2020, a state of emergency has been declared annually to be able to take out corresponding loans and disable the debt brake. Expenditures were being shifted into shadow budgets.
For the upcoming budget negotiations in the fall, the state audit office also plans to use the state of emergency, so the Rechnungshof. "We explicitly disagree with the state government's interpretation of the state of emergency," emphasized Barthel. The definition of the state of emergency, with the consequences of the Corona pandemic, is not clear and he assumes that this will not pass scrutiny by the courts.
In several areas, the audit office sees negligence by the state government:
Errors in procurement of laptops for schools
To make the schools fit for the Corona pandemic, around 14 million Euro were available to the state of Saxony-Anhalt. However, the implementation took too long, criticized Rechnungshof-President Barthel. Effective devices were only available after a year. The reasons were not only global demand for notebooks and associated supply bottlenecks, but also internal causes in the procurement process.
A mistake had been made in that the Ministry of Education had left it up to the 208 school administrators to decide whether they wanted to procure the end devices centrally or in their own capacity. In the central procurement, the Ministry then lacked experience. There were also deficiencies in the distribution of devices. It was not plausible why primary school students were treated less favorably than other schools. Some notebooks were never put to use.
Dilapidated state roads
"The 4,000 kilometer long state road network is in a worrying condition," said Barthel. Currently, 45 percent of the state roads are assessed as very poor. A need for repair exists even for more than 60 percent. The values are higher than at the last audit in 2009. "These numbers alone illustrate the high investment requirement necessary to ensure that our roads do not become dangerous potholes in the future."
Overburdening of the Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau
According to its statutes, the Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau is responsible for managing a whole range of its and rented properties - beyond the actual Bauhaus building. Several buildings, such as the Master's House Ensemble or the Bauhaus Museum of the City, were not explicitly mentioned but were still managed by the foundation. This is an additional burden that the foundation can only cope with great effort personally and organizationally. Prospectively, there is a significant financing risk.
Excessive costs in construction
The Finance Ministry has not always been able to prove that the preferred solution was also the most economical in some construction projects. The audit office mentions, for example, the Justice Detention Center Burg and the Amtsgericht Bitterfeld-Wolfen, large cost increases.
High public expenditures
With around 4.5 billion Euro, public expenditures for civil servants are too high, according to the Audit Court. "We live in the age of digitalization", said Barthel. "Other countries are doing it better." Finland, for example, has fewer people but one doesn't have the feeling that the state is not agile. In view of the changing demography in the country, costs here must be drastically reduced.
- The Court of Audit in Saxony-Anhalt has expressed concerns about the State government's reliance on the State budget, which is increasingly funded through new debts due to annual states of emergency since 2020.
- The State Audit Office plans to use the ongoing state of emergency in the upcoming budget negotiations, but Rechnungshof-President Kay Barthel explicitly disagrees with the state government's interpretation, believing it may not pass scrutiny by the courts due to the ambiguity of the Coronavirus pandemic's impact definition.
- The State Audit Office has identified several areas of negligence in the State government’s handling of funds, including errors in procuring laptops for schools, excessive costs in construction, and high public expenditures on civil servants, particularly in the field of digitalization where other countries have demonstrated more efficiency.
- The Court of Audit also criticizes the poor condition of Saxony-Anhalt's state roads, with almost half of its 4,000km network rated as very poor and requiring costly repairs, and the overburdening of the Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau with the management of several properties beyond its mandate, posing a significant financing risk for the foundation.
