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Saturday, December 22, 2012

SALZBURG; WHERE GOEST THOU ???

I had honestly planned that the most recent entry about the "Zocking in Salzburg" was to be the last one on this subject.
Recent developments, however, make me break this vow and tell you about the latest 'shenanigans' happening in this beautiful Province:
You must know that Provinces here have no right to tax its citizens. Taxing is done by the Federal Government, who in turn hand over certain amounts to the Provinces, so they may discharge their responsibilities. They, in turn, fund Municipalities.
This is great for the Provincial Government, since it can never be blamed for 'raising taxes'.

Salzburg, so the Newspapers report, asked the Feds for (in round numbers) 445 Million Euros more than its budget called for. This money was to be used to assist in the erection of residential buildings. (Wohnbauförderung ).
The Feds paid up, but now the Province cannot find this money. 

Get this: A Government gets 445 Million Euros, but, after having received this amount, cannot find it.
The suspicion exists that the good lady, Monica, who made so many bad investments with taxpayers money that the Province now shows an earlier mentioned paper loss of 340 Million Euros, has also got her sticky fingers on this amount and gambled it away. 
No one suggests, by the way, that she enriched herself to any extent. She did all this in order to make money for the Province and its citizens.

Now what about the 'Auditor General's' claim that they were shown forged documents in order to hide the losses? There are, as is to be expected; denials on every front. The Chief of the office of the Auditor General, Mr. Josef Moser, however, repeated his clearly stated accusation that his auditors were shown forged documents. He said: "A large part of the documents we asked for, were forgeries."

Mr. David Brenner, a member of the Provincial Government and financial advisor to the Province ( Salzburg Finanzlandesrat) has now tendered his resignation. It is said that "he knew or should have known" of  all these goings-on. The accusation stands that the Provincial Government of Salzburg deliberately mislead the Auditor General of the Federal Government. This is, of course, hotly denied by the leaders of the Province. In fact, Mr. Brenner claims to have heard about all of this for the first time, when it became public.
Mrs. Burgstaller, the Premier of Salzburg Province also claims not to have had any knowledge of this misuse of power by Mrs. Monica. 

Out of all this mess comes, or seems to come, one benefit:

The Federal Government ( consisting of a coalition between the Socialist Party of Austria and the Austrian People's Party) has agreed to officially forbid the use of Taxpayers' money for high-risk investments.
                                                Hurray !!!!!

says Bertstravels
on behalf of all taxpaying citizens
everywhere.

P.S. One Austrian reader of this Blog has chastised me, suggesting that I stop giving advise to Austria. I challenge this reader to show me one single line in anything I have written about this affair which could be interpreted as giving advise to anybody.
I have simply repeated, mostly in my own words, what the Newspapers and other Media report here about this peculiar issue.

2 comments:

Lianne said...

HaHa - sounds familiar eh? Power does seem to corrupt doesn't it? Good to know it happens on that side of the pond too.

Advise? It's hidden. And it says "Pay attention people!"

Bert said...

I must say, Lianne, that I have never heard of such shenanigans like high risk gambling with taxpayers' money in Canada. Am I naively wrong???