The committee of inquiry into the mask affair and the Ministry of Finance have been fundamentally at odds over the past few weeks because of the complete release of files – so that the state government deputies even threatened the police, customs and the public prosecutor’s office.
The correspondence, which is available to the SZ, deals with documents on the extensive holdings of the Free State, which range from traditional companies such as the state breweries and lake shipping to the state bank, trade fairs and airports.
Because the committee in the state parliament not only wants to examine the processes related to the procurement of corona protective equipment, but also all transactions by government agencies since 2016 in which MPs may have been involved, the MPs pushed for the provision of such files.
The ministry initially replied that it was not obliged to “request and bring in” files that were not yet in the building. Even in the case of holding companies organized under private law, one recognizes “no obligation on our part” that goes beyond the material already available, such as in the course of legal supervision.
Only an intervention by the committee chairman, former Justice Minister Winfried Bausback (CSU), at the beginning of January allowed the ministry to give in. In the letter to the House of Finance Minister Albert Füracker (CSU), he recalled the “reach of parliamentary control powers,” which “only allow parliamentary inquiries or file submissions to be refused in clearly defined exceptional situations.”
There is a fundamental decision by the Federal Constitutional Court from 2017 on the “area of responsibility of the government to be controlled”, which includes all investments. And: Karlsruhe rejected a view of the Bavarian Constitutional Court with narrower limits from 2006, which the ministry had previously argued with.
“The greatest possible transparency is created.”
The Ministry is said to have then admitted that there is a submission obligation. The committee, in turn, passed a resolution that obliges the state government to provide “administrative assistance”: Requested files from holdings must be procured and presented. The alternative, it says, would be the “involvement of public prosecutors, police forces or customs forces” or an investigating judge.
What would have disadvantages: “Unlike the departments, these authorities or courts could not use existing files or human resources incorporated into the material, but would be limited to the use of criminal procedural powers to intervene.”
At the request of the SZ, the Ministry of Finance announced that it was supporting the committee’s work “to the best of its ability, with the greatest possible transparency being created”. The request for administrative assistance is “completely followed”. In CSU circles it was also said that there was no lack of willingness to cooperate here, that there were only disagreements on the way. The Karlsruhe judgment was probably “not on the screen”.
First and foremost, the committee wants to shed light on the mask purchases in the pandemic, participations by MPs in them and commissions. The occasion is business like that of Alfred Sauter (CSU), member of the state parliament, and the actions of entrepreneur Andrea Tandler, daughter of former CSU minister Gerold Tandler, are also mentioned in the catalog of questions. On Thursday at the next meeting, the committee wants to submit two requests for evidence – to take a look at masks from these deals.
60 copies each of the participating companies Emix and Lomotex are to be handed over by the state government in unopened condition. Later, these could be expertly assessed if necessary, as the SPD, Greens and FDP jointly announced. You have doubts about the quality.
“The state government keeps making contradictory statements about tests and certifications,” complains Markus Rinderspacher (SPD). Helmut Kaltenhauser (FDP) sees a “failure” in mask management in view of more than 100 recalls and missing certificates. Florian Siekmann (Greens) says: “Some scrap masks were probably delivered. The files alone are not enough to clarify.”
A spokesman for the Ministry of Health said: The three factions did not say a word that at the beginning of the pandemic “without the state deliveries, nursing and medical staff would have been without protective equipment”. The allegations are unfounded, the claim that the state government has failed in mask management is “simply ridiculous”.