Specifically, it is about the Alois Mock Institute, whose chairman is National Council President Wolfgang Sobotka (ÖVP). According to media reports, the Ministry of Finance is said to have withheld information on payment flows from the U-Committee. The reason is said to have been interventions by the then Minister Blümel.
Sobotka had stated in his survey in the Ibiza investigative committee that the club’s annual budget was 250,000 euros. As a result, the finance department was commissioned to ascertain where exactly this money came from. This revenue survey was carried out by the Lilienfeld St. Pölten tax office, which also sent the results to the finance department. According to the opposition, these documents did not reach the sub-committee itself.
The finance department – despite the survey already commissioned – instead explained to the committee that there was no legal basis for collecting the club’s income, writes the “Krone”. The fact that this had already been carried out was not recorded, criticizes SPÖ parliamentary group leader Jan Krainer. And a repeated request from the committee to carry out the survey was also rejected.
“I think that’s abuse of office,” says Krainer in the Ö1 “Mittagsjournal”. The liberal parliamentary group leader Christian Hafenecker also announced that he would once again submit an application for evidence.
The Ministry of Finance said that since Blümel is the former minister, no assumptions can be made about individual actions. In the specific case, the department pointed out the legal component to the U-Committee, according to which the requested survey was not legally compliant. Why a review was apparently carried out regardless of this legal view “cannot be clearly verified at this point in time”.
Source: Nachrichten
