She is said to have applied for continued salary payment after the end of her term of office, although she had other income. That’s not entirely clean and Karmasin is said to have left a refund in the meantime, reported the “ZiB2” on Tuesday evening. Karmasin’s lawyer was quoted on the show as saying that the “optics weren’t good” and that a refund was initiated.
Politicians who leave office and have no right to continue gainful employment (no right to return or no right to a mandate) will continue to receive 75 percent of their monthly salary for a maximum of six months upon request. Karmasin is said to have received four monthly payments, which are around 50,000 euros.
Karmasin, who is said to be significantly involved in the ÖVP advertisement affair about surveys bought with tax money, is currently in custody because she is said to have obtained orders from the Ministry of Sports with illegal price fixing after her political career. Karmasin billed the ministry for a total of 140,268 euros for two studies.
As can be seen from a recent response to a parliamentary inquiry by the SPÖ by Sports Minister Werner Kogler (Greens), the two Karmasin studies – along with several others – are now being examined by the internal auditors. According to Kogler, they can be found “on the revision plan 2022”.
Karmasin’s first study for the Ministry of Sports on the subject of “Motive Analysis of Movement and Sport”, which she billed in April 2020, had an order volume of 63,600 euros. “The task was to survey a broad target group to find out the reasons why certain groups of people in Austria do or do not do sports. In particular, questions on the subjective perception of advantages and benefits, barriers, offers, campaigns, etc. were asked and evaluated “, Kogler describes the content of the study, which served “internal coordination” in his response to the inquiry. A publication was not planned.
According to the WKStA, Karmasin is said to have been awarded the contract by getting two other pollsters – including her former employee, Sabine Beinschab, who was also accused of the ÖVP affair – to make offers that were higher in price than agreed with her in mid-2019. so that in the end she was awarded the contract as the best bidder. According to the Office of the Public Prosecutor for Economic Affairs and Corruption (WKStA), these were illegal agreements that violated the Cartel Act and the General Civil Code (ABGB).
Something similar is said to have been repeated in connection with the study “Women in Club Sport”, which Karmasin accounted for in July 2021. Again, she is said to have persuaded Beinschab and the other colleague to make inflated bids agreed with her and, as the supposed best bidder, received the order with a volume of 76,688 euros. According to Kogler, the study, which was later published on the website of the Ministry of Sport, “examined the motives and barriers of female members in sports clubs on the basis of surveys, group discussions and expert interviews”.
Regarding the question of why external studies are generally commissioned and what public or legal interest they serve, the Green Vice Chancellor and Minister of Sport remarked in the response to the query: “For reasons of cost efficiency while at the same time high quality of work, it is sometimes necessary to selectively carry out external studies To obtain expertise for specific subject areas, insofar as it is not available in the BMKÖS itself.” In certain areas it is “also useful, in addition to the departmental view of a topic, to get a different perspective through the expertise of an outsider or those affected”.
Source: Nachrichten
