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The dissolution of the Covid financing agency Cofag, which handled the payment of Corona aid to companies, is scheduled to start on June 30th. It should be completely abolished by the end of the year. Criticism was voiced again and again, with companies complaining about the long wait for payouts.
According to the Chamber of Commerce, more than 1,000 businesses in tourism have also been waiting for the promised funds for two years, including travel agencies and the hotel industry. “These have been left behind for two years now due to misleading information and inaction by Cofag,” criticizes Robert Seeber, Federal Chairman of the Tourism and Leisure Industry Division.
- Read here: “We are waiting for coronavirus aid worth millions”
This “misery” is due to the ambiguities created by the legislature at the time in the guidelines on Corona aid. From the EU Commission’s perspective, the regulations did not give sufficient consideration to so-called “affiliated companies”. Another problem concerns the deadlines within which applications could be submitted.
Austria subsequently presented proposed solutions to both problems, which were approved by the EU Commission in autumn last year. Since then, however, there has been a standstill in national implementation, say stakeholders.
“Around 1,100 applicants from accommodation and catering still have outstanding claims amounting to around 160 million euros, which threatens the existence of many of our businesses and is incomprehensible,” says the chairman of the hotel industry association, Johann Spreitzhofer.
Committee of inquiry into Cofag
It is understandable that checks are carried out to prevent misuse. “But we cannot understand what is happening here at the expense of the companies,” says Seeber. The tourism experts are appealing to the federal government and Vice Chancellor Werner Kogler to agree to the guidelines approved by the EU.
A separate investigative committee is currently supposed to examine the financing agency, and the surveys will start at the beginning of March. The opposition parties SPÖ and FPÖ had repeatedly criticized the process. The Court of Auditors examined the aid agency from March 2020 to June 2021 and found “considerable overfunding potential” and criticized, among other things, the high costs for the specially founded company.
Last fall, the Constitutional Court repealed parts of Cofag’s legal basis with effect from the end of October 2024, meaning that aid can still flow until then.
- Read here: Is there a right to tax money? 43 companies are suing for Covid funding
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