After the opposition in the state parliament, the Supreme Court of Auditors (ORH) is now also criticizing the previous failures of the state-owned company Bayernheim in housing construction. According to the new annual report of the independent financial controllers, which was published on Tuesday, “not a single new apartment has been created” within a good three years. Bayernheim was founded in 2018 by Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU), who defined housing as a “central social issue” and set the goal of 10,000 new units by 2025, primarily for low and middle earners.
“It’s difficult to implement it,” writes the ORH: No apartment had just been built itself, instead Bayernheim had only acquired properties – which in turn were already subject to the provisions of state housing subsidies. And that to a moderate extent: by the end of 2021, 848 apartments had been bought, of which only 234 were ready for occupancy by then.
According to ORH, the outlook is also poor: According to Bayernheim’s own planning figures from last summer, only 1567 of the 10,000 apartments should be ready for occupancy by the end of 2025, and even by the end of 2030 only a third of Söder’s mark will probably be met.
Opposition politicians, who have repeatedly criticized the sluggish progress, feel confirmed by the ORH. Sebastian Körber (FDP) called the record “pathetic”. It turns out that “the state is not the better entrepreneur”. And with its experiments, Bayernheim “even competes with municipal, cooperative and church housing associations”.
Construction Minister Christian Bernreiter (CSU) – already the fourth head of department since Söder took over government in 2018 – pointed out that one could speak of a total of 3460 apartments if planning or development is also included in the inventory and construction. Bayernheim is “on the right track now”. The enormous increase in construction prices is making it more difficult to create living space, said Bernreiter. The ORH report is “too rigid, works with outdated figures and misjudges the current situation”.
The Ministry of Health, meanwhile, commented on another ORH audit: the alleged misappropriation of meal allowances for employees in the health system. As the SZ had reported, there was free food for employees in clinics and in care in the first months of Corona, 133 million euros were provided by the Free State. According to the ORH, in a third of the cases examined, the money apparently silted up instead of benefiting the employees. The ministry called the criticism “objectively incomprehensible”. The ORH hides the fact that some of the money was later used or refunded.
Finance Minister Albert Füracker (CSU) commented on the ORH’s warning about the debt brake. If leftovers from the Corona credit line of 20 billion euros, which the state parliament had opened up in 2020, are used, the ORH demanded substantial justification. Exhausting the credit line is “painful” for a finance minister, said Füracker. However, investments in the high-tech agenda, for example, were part of cushioning the consequences of the pandemic. The financial management is “rock solid”.