The Bavarian Supreme Audit Office (ORH) is calling on the state government to consistently repay the debts from the billion-dollar Bavarian special coronavirus pandemic fund from 2020. This emerges from the 2024 annual report, which the ORH published this Tuesday, but which was already available to the SZ on Monday. “From the ORH’s perspective, the budgetary requirements for repaying the corona-related loans from 2020 to 2023 should be maintained and these debts should be reduced accordingly from 2024,” says ORH President Heidrun Piwernetz. From the ORH’s perspective, there is a high “risk of further deviations” from the repayment regulations if the reduction of Corona debt is drastically reduced in the first few years.
The state government and state parliament set up the special Corona pandemic fund in 2020 with a volume of up to 20 billion euros. On the one hand, the money should flow into measures to combat the pandemic. On the other hand, small and medium-sized companies in Bavaria should receive liquidity support from it. The special fund was financed through loans. At the same time, it was determined that the new debts would be repaid in 20 consistent annual installments from 2024. According to the current budget draft for 2024 and 2025, the black-orange government coalition under Prime Minister Markus Söder wants to deviate from the target in the first year of repayment – and repay 771 million euros less than planned.
This is a very bad sign for the ORH – also in view of the economically tense times. “Solid financial management remains the order of the day,” says Piwernetz. The state government can still fall back on well-filled reserves. “In the interest of a sustainable financial policy, however, expenditure must be increasingly geared towards the expected income without foreseeing a withdrawal from reserves,” says Piwernetz. Finance Minister Albert Füracker (CSU) rejected the criticism. “We are in a tense economic situation in Germany,” he told the German Press Agency. “We build up and use our reserves to make important future investments in times of crisis, to provide economic stimulus and to cushion the effects of crises on people.”
The ORH is convinced that the Free State should also learn lessons from the corona pandemic. For example, from his aid programs for art and culture, under which he paid out almost 100 million euros to venues, event organizers, cinemas, self-employed artists and others. According to ORH, the programs and subsequent audits showed “significant deficiencies.” There was also no cost control at the municipal vaccination centers, into which a total of 1.4 billion euros of state money had flowed by February 2023. And for 27.6 million euros of 170 million euros that went to the Bavarian university hospitals and the German Heart Center in Munich in 2020 for corona-related loss of revenue, additional costs and investments from the special corona pandemic fund, the requirements were missing or not proven, according to the ORH .
When it comes to its revenue, the Free State should also show more emphasis. The tax authorities often lack data for taxing influencers on social networks. But this is not the only reason why the Free State is losing a lot of money. But also when trading cryptocurrencies on the Internet. Only a small portion of the profits from these transactions are taxed, according to the ORH report. For Bavaria alone, the ORH “conservatively” puts the tax default risks at 150 million euros annually.