Federal Audit Office sees deficiencies in the supplementary budget

The Budget Committee wants to discuss the planned supplementary budget with experts today. Several experts see no alternative for the government. The Court of Auditors, however, considers the procedure to be “extremely problematic”.

Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner calls it a clean slate. A supplementary budget is intended to put the debt that the federal government has taken on, for example for energy price caps, on a new basis. To do this, however, the Bundestag still has to declare an exceptional emergency – then for the fourth time in a row.

A procedure for which, according to several experts, there is no alternative. Karlsruhe economist Berthold Wigger writes in his statement for today’s hearing in the Budget Committee: “In view of the fact that the 2023 budget year is coming to an end, there should be no other way to ensure a constitutional budget.” The Heidelberg lawyer Hanno Kube considers the government’s actions to be “justifiable”.

New Constitutional complaint unlikely

Criticism comes from Nuremberg economist Thiess Büttner and the Federal Audit Office with regard to the practice of booking debts in so-called special funds. The Court of Auditors therefore considers the supplementary budget to be “extremely constitutionally problematic”.

Two years ago, the traffic light coalition changed the procedure for when loans are counted towards the debt brake: no longer when the loans are taken out, but when a decision is made about them. After the Karlsruhe ruling, it is advisable to return to the old practice, Büttner now writes.

However, a new constitutional complaint is not to be expected – corresponding signals recently came from the Union parliamentary group, which obtained the verdict on the Corona debts in Karlsruhe.