In Günzburg they are very happy that the affair surrounding the mask deals has calmed down a bit. The reputation of the district has suffered supraregionally, because when you hear the keyword “Günzburg” everyone thinks of greedy politicians first. In the district, the discussion is more about the question of how a politician like Alfred Sauter can just go on as if there had never been any allegations about mask deals. He’s at receptions, attends inaugurations, sits in the front row and naturally wants to let his contacts play, so that the city of Günzburg can organize the state horticultural show.
The only problem is that the long-term media fire surrounding Sauter and the member of the Bundestag Georg Nüßlein has died down. But in Günzburg you also have politicians from the second row who draw attention to themselves with preliminary investigations. The public prosecutor’s office has initiated preliminary investigations against Stephanie Denzler (CSU). The well-connected local politician is not only a district, district and city councilor, but also the chairwoman of the sponsoring association of the Günzburg childcare facility “Kids & Company”.
With a hidden price list, it has wrongly bagged 385,000 euros in funding from municipalities and the state for years, a Bavaria-wide exception of this magnitude. In order to be able to repay the money, the district clinics quickly advanced the amount as a loan, which in turn was prepared so amateurishly that the Ministry of the Interior had to intervene as the supervisory authority. In the end, there is now the accusation that CSU grandees from the area helped each other to get the affair off the table.
According to the district office, the childcare facility worked with two price lists. An overview of parental fees that was available to the authorities and a second tier of prices that went to parents and offered discounts for parents who took advantage of a fixed price offer with a long booking period. When the District Office found out about the second price list by chance, an audit found that at “Kids & Company” the children were on average several hours less in the facility than booked and billed by the provider. As a result, there was almost 400,000 euros in municipal and state funding too much in this way. 21 municipalities were affected, nine of them outside the Günzburg district. They have all got their money back by now.
Denzler is not accused of having enriched herself. She also sees the fault more in the system than in herself. She says: “The case is not unusual, it happens in many daycare centers.” Parents should be able to pick up their child sooner or later. You just didn’t have a time card. “Think of the doctor who has been involved in an operation for a long time,” says the CSU politician. “The only ones who benefited from this were the families who let us look after their children.”
From Johannes Becher’s point of view, however, the fault is on site. Becher is a member of the state parliament of the Greens and responsible for early childhood education. The financial dimension of the case in Bavaria can only be compared with a few other cases in childcare facilities. “If a price table is available to the district administration and another to the parents, I am not surprised that the public prosecutor’s office is now investigating,” says Becher, who has made an inquiry to the Ministry of Social Affairs about the case. There, the “special construct”, as Becher calls it, comes up, that the district clinics grant a loan of 400,000 euros to the sponsoring association so that it can repay the incorrect grants.
There was considerable resentment about the loan, both inside and outside the panel
Apparently no credit institute wanted to step in, which is why the district clinics ultimately granted a short-term interest-free loan without collateral – in the meantime, the crèche building has been taken over for the money. Social Affairs Minister Carolina Trautner (CSU) writes that an interest-free loan, but no longer a loan without collateral, complies with the requirement to minimize financial risks. The Ministry of the Interior, as legal supervisor, was therefore placed at the side of the district clinics in an advisory capacity.
Denzler himself sits on the administrative board of the district clinics, the chairman is her CSU party colleague and district council president Martin Sailer, district administrator of the Augsburg district. There was considerable dissatisfaction with the loan, both inside and outside the body, and several board members felt taken by surprise and not informed. Numerous politicians who have dealt with the matter ask whether CSU politicians have quickly bailed each other out. Sailer gives no answer to this, Denzler accuses the political opponent of creating a mood. Officially, the press department of the Swabian district says that numerous children of employees of the district clinics used the childcare facility. The loan was only paid out on the condition that the sponsoring association had passed a resolution to sell the crèche to the district clinics.