Exclusive
As of: 10/20/2022 9:27 p.m
The contracts of exrbb-Intendant Schlesinger are incorrect, the allegations of unlawful food and travel expenses are largely correct. In Potsdam, an interim report on the clarification of the rbb-Affair presented.
The allegations have been around for months:rbbDirector Patricia Schlesinger is said to have billed private meals and trips on business, i.e. at the expense of the contributors. On Thursday, the law firm Lutz Abel in Potsdam, commissioned by rbb, presented a first interim report that largely confirmed the allegations.
But before the lawyers have their say, it takes a while. Actually, the special session of the rbb– Broadcasting Council begin at twelve o’clock. But the way from Berlin to Potsdam-Babelsberg, where the Broadcasting Council meets, is sometimes difficult. At 12.14 p.m. the members of the broadcasting and administrative board are finally complete. The Berlin Green Antje Kapek enters the hall and is greeted with a happy applause.
Self-criticism in the Broadcasting Council
After that, the good mood quickly fades. rbbDirector Kathrin Vernau had submitted the application for an additional item on the agenda: program director Jan Schulte-Kellinghaus should be appointed deputy director. According to the regulations of the Broadcasting Council, further agenda items can only be included at short notice if the matter is urgent. The matter is urgent for Vernau, since her current deputy Hagen Brandstätter is ill and his contract is about to be terminated prematurely.
Antje Kapek, however, quickly made it clear that the Broadcasting Council, which in the past did not or could not always fulfill its control functions as expected, is now blowing differently. “No vote by acclamation,” said Kapek, the rest should be discussed in the non-public section.
A good one and a half hours later, Schulte-Kellinghaus was provisionally appointed as the new deputy director at the meeting, which was no longer open to the public. From then on, the lawyers at the Lutz Abel law firm report on the results of their previous investigations.
Meals were not billable
In mid-July, the compliance officer of the rbb the law firm Lutz Abel with the investigation of the allegations against the ex-director. The accounts for dinner that Schlesinger referred to were checked rbb-Has organized costs in her apartment. Result: “There is a general lack of billing for the dinners in question, since the official reason for the meals was not documented in accordance with the specifications of the DA (service instructions) for hospitality and cannot be checked on the basis of the receipts. In some cases, the billing process was not completed within the two-month period provided initiated.”
According to the interim report, it was only possible to clarify in one case whether the meals were more business-related or private: It was about the meal attended by Berlin’s police chief Slowik, who assumed it was a purely private event. In the case of the other meals, this “could only have been determined by talking to the participants. Such talks or interviews were not possible for us,” according to the interim report, due to the request “by the Berlin Public Prosecutor’s Office, which is criminally investigating in this connection”.
But: The contracts did not even provide for the director to adhere to the entertainment cost rules. Ultimately, however, it is a question of culture, things were accepted as normal that are not normal when viewed from the outside, the lawyers concluded at the subsequent press conference.
Trip to London “illegal” billed
September 2021: Schlesinger, her husband and some acquaintances travel to London for the Sheriff’s Ball. For the companions, a private trip to a charity event, for ex-artistic director Schlesinger apparently a business occasion – she billed the rbb for travel expenses. The lawyers’ assessment: “The trip to London that Ms. Schlesinger made together with her husband, Dr. Spörl, in September 2021 and the costs of which dated rbb were reimbursed or worn was, in our opinion, not required for work purposes.”
In contrast to the hospitality cost regulations, to which the ex-director was not bound, she had to stick to what was for everyone when accounting for trips rbb-Employee applies. The lawyers were rather reluctant to comment on the consequences of this, saying that the law firm was not commissioned to carry out a criminal assessment of the events.
Service contracts incorrect
The interim report confirms many media reports with regard to the allegations made in the past few months on suspicion of enrichment. Allegations regarding the private use of the company car, including massage seats, which Schlesinger duly taxed at the list price, proved to be unfounded.
Things got really exciting at a point that hadn’t played any role up until then, titled “legitimacy of the salary payments made to Ms. Schlesinger”. There were a total of three so-called “service contracts”: concluded in 2016, 2018 and 2021. According to the interim report, the first two contracts, however, lacked an “effective resolution of the board of directors”. In these cases, formalities were not complied with, with the result that the contracts are incorrect. But even with the third contract, there were “both procedural and content deficiencies” from a legal point of view.
Contracts may not have to be fulfilled
This has no consequences for the past, but for the future when it comes to further payments and the fulfillment of the contract. According to the amateur translation, a faulty contract does not necessarily have to be fulfilled.
The former chairman of the board of directors, Wolf-Dieter Wolf, was ultimately responsible for this. His term of office was probably characterized above all by the fact that he excluded members of the Board of Directors from information and pushed through his ideas.
Dorette König, the current chair of the board of directors, summarized the problem with a view to the future as follows: “Resolutions must never again be made on the basis of information from a single member.” Seen from the outside, this is a matter of course. But as in rbb many things were accepted as normal in the supervisory bodies that were simply not normal.
Lawyers give recommendations for action
The interim report also contains recommendations for action that are urgently needed: upper limits and clear regulations for business-related hospitality, an independent audit of accounts and changes in the work of the board of directors.
In December, the lawyers want to present their findings on the processes at the digital media house, which has since been stopped. Ultimately, who can also be held materially responsible for the systematic failure on several levels has not yet been conclusively answered.