“The controls of the financial police ensure fair competition and protect the financial interests of the Republic of Austria and the taxpayers,” said Minister of the Interior Magnus Brunner (VP) yesterday at the presentation of the financial police’s annual balance sheet. This carried out 28,000 checks throughout Austria in 2021, which resulted in penalties of 36 million euros being requested.
The work of the financial police was divided into three main areas in the previous year. In the first area, the labor market, the financial police examined the employment relationships of around 54,000 people last year. Around 3,400 employees were not properly registered for social security. 1,600 companies were inspected for wage and social dumping, which led to a total of 1,800 criminal complaints.
In connection with the Corona short-time work, the financial police carried out more than 5,000 checks, and 2,600 inconsistencies were discovered. These were forwarded to the labor market service responsible for further processing.
The number of illegal gaming machines seized has fallen sharply, totaling 812 in the previous year. Reports from the public have also decreased significantly. The financial police still sees this as a success, the decline is a sign that illegal gambling in Austria has been pushed back significantly in recent years.
Successful and challenging
The head of the financial police, Wilfried Lehner, described the previous year as extremely successful, but also as challenging due to the pandemic. Overall, despite the pandemic, it was possible to carry out about the same number of checks as in previous years.
The introduction of the anti-fraud office (ABB) in the financial administration was new last year. This led to an organizational merger of the anti-fraud units in ABB and to shorter official channels, said ABB director Alfred Hacker. “Organized fraud is very flexible, but so is the financial administration in combating fraud,” says Hacker.
Source: Nachrichten
