The Court of Auditors (RH) found serious shortcomings when reviewing the Corona short-time work for the period from March 2020 to the end of March 2021: In application phase 1 to the end of May 2020, there was a systematic overpayment of around 500 million euros one of the key statements in the RH report published yesterday, Friday.
At the beginning, an unsuitable calculation model was used. The process presented the Public Employment Service (AMS) with a major administrative challenge. The original version of the guideline dated March 19 has been adapted twelve times, often retrospectively. From the summer of 2020, it was possible to stabilize the settlement process.
The ACA also criticizes the fact that there was no control concept in place during the reviewed period to specifically uncover unlawful receipt of funding. The AMS only requested working time records in exceptional cases. On-site checks were also not carried out.
The costs for short-time work amounted to 7.8 billion euros by the end of March 2021. Wrongly billed lost hours were among the most frequently suspected cases of fraud reported to the AMS. Companies that were already in difficulties before the crisis were not entitled to Corona short-time work: However, the AMS did not check these funding requirements.
Source: Nachrichten
