Image: ROLAND SCHLAGER (APA)
Marketing Austria as a business location abroad, supporting the establishment of foreign companies and recruiting skilled workers: these are the tasks of the domestic location agency Austrian Business Agency – ABA for short. It was founded in 1982 and reports to the Ministry of Economic Affairs. This is also where the budget comes from: while it was 4.83 million euros in 2018, 9.08 million euros were made available in 2023 – an increase of more than 80 percent. With the exception of 2021, these funds were never used up, the Court of Auditors criticized in its report published on Friday.
The VP-led Ministry of Economic Affairs made several advance payments during the audit period (2018 to 2022) “that were not economically justified”. The ministry responded: The failure to utilize the budget was an expression of the ABA’s economic viability; budget planning was made more difficult by the pandemic and high energy costs. Unused funds would flow back to the ministry.
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But it wasn’t just the budgeting that was criticized by the Court of Auditors: According to the auditors’ assessment, the location agency lacks a multi-year marketing concept. In addition, the ABA was unable to provide any figures on the quality and scope of the consulting projects. No data was provided about the actual settlement of foreign skilled workers in Austria.
Consulting contracts and procurement law
In 2022 there were contracts with 25 consultants. According to the report, their services – the search and advice of foreign companies that are interested in setting up or expanding in Austria – are sometimes not transparent. On average, one of the consultants collected a quarter of the annual fees paid to all consultants. The total expenditure for the services of all consultants averaged around 790,000 euros per year.
Another point of criticism: As a public institution, the ABA did not adhere to the provisions of the Public Procurement Act as intended when third parties were commissioned to provide services.
The Court of Auditors points out that a quarter of the ABA’s consulting projects between 2018 and 2022 only took place after the company had settled in Austria or had been entered in the commercial register. The Court of Auditors recommends coordinating services with the Chamber of Commerce in order to avoid “cost-intensive duplication”. According to the ABA, post-settlement support is part of the strategy.
Criticism of the opposition
The opposition’s reaction to the report was violent: the ABA is a reflection of the VP’s policy, said SP economics spokesman Christoph Matznetter. He and Gerald Loacker (Neos) accused the governing party of “burning” tax money or throwing it out the window.
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