New trouble for the CSU minister: The Federal Audit Office sees legal violations in the planned highway reform – and the auditors formulate an urgent warning.
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It should actually be the longed-for success for Minister of Transport Andreas Scheuer (CSU). After the car toll failed so loudly in 2019, Scheuer now wants to score points with its second prestige project: the development of the federal motorway company.
Wherever possible, Scheuer shines the Autobahn GmbH logo in the cameras. Around autumn with Hesse’s Prime Minister Volker Bouffier (CDU). The decision had just been made to locate the traffic control center for the giant project in Frankfurt.
The message: It goes on. No comparison seemed too big. Scheuer spoke of the “cerebrum of the German highways.”
The auditors recommend that no budget funds be released for the project
The minister gets attention because he is pushing ahead with the largest administrative reform in Germany in recent years. It’s about a lot of money and highly sensitive projects. The federal government intends to outsource the planning, construction and operation of the almost 13,000-kilometer federal motorway network to its own company – and thus also to take it over from the federal states. To speed up construction projects, as Scheuer emphasizes, authorities are being merged and branches are being redistributed across the country.
But now a confidential report by the Federal Audit Office makes it clear that this prestige project is also becoming a dispute. As in a report on the rapid introduction of tolls, government inspectors have also expressed massive criticism of central parts of the federal highway company.
In the 16-page paper dated June 25 that the Süddeutsche Zeitung , they accuse Scheuer, without make-up, of legal violations – and demand from the Bundestag and Finance Minister Olaf Scholz (SPD) that budget funds remain blocked.
Time is of the essence. According to Scheuer’s plans, the federal highway company is set to get off to a good start in early 2021. For a quick start, Scheuer also plans to take over the planning company Deges. The “Deutsche Einheit Fernstraßenplanungs- und -bau GmbH” still mostly belongs to the federal states.
It is taking over major planning projects for twelve state governments and is to be merged with Autobahn GmbH. The federal government wants to buy them as quickly as possible. The transition should actually take place on January 1, 2020. But the plan is barely progressing.
And there are new dangers. Because the auditors formulate an urgent warning: The planned merger “is fraught with considerable constitutional risks. Furthermore, we see violations of simple law and procurement law”. The budget for the takeover already planned should rather not be released. One recommends “not to unlock the means”, it says in the paper.
The auditors fear Tohuwabuo planning law. Because with the step, the federal government would ultimately take on tasks of order management of the federal states and the state administrations. This would contradict the separation of duties prescribed by the Basic Law. The consequences could be serious. The auditors warn that all orders that the federal states have placed with Deges would have to be put out to tender again. In the event of violations of public procurement law, claims for damages even threaten, it is said.
The opposition sees the paper as a slap in the face for Scheuer’s house. “The Federal Audit Office reads the Levites to the Ministry of Transport,” says Victor Perli, a left-wing member of the Committee on Budgets. Perli suspects further calculations behind the minister’s controversial steps. “The next surge in privatization is imminent,” Perli warns.
Scheuer is trying to facilitate public-private partnerships in road construction projects. Partial privatization does little better for drivers. Experience shows that delays and expensive lawsuits are the result. The Ministry of Transport rejected the allegations to the Court of Auditors, which remained on its line. On Friday, it did not comment on the allegations.
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