The Kogler department commissioned Austria Wirtschaftsservice GmbH (AWS) to examine more closely whether recipients of funding who are formally non-profit associations and thus meet the application requirements are still part of a party according to the party law and are therefore excluded from the fund. Such more detailed tests are usually carried out on a random basis or based on information.
Much of the exams – about three Seniors’ Association state organizations in Upper Austria, Carinthia and Tyrol – still running. A final legal assessment was not yet possible there, the examination of the association “ab5zig (Wiener Seniors Association)” is still at an earlier stage, according to the broadcast. The other four Seniors Association– According to a department spokesman, state organizations have not applied for funding from the NPO fund.
The trigger for the more in-depth examinations was a NEOS query response, which included controversial funding of almost two million euros to the Upper Austrian Seniors Association has shown. However, the first results are available.
Of the “Seniors’ Association VorarlbergAccording to the broadcast, he was unable to explain in his statements that a sub-organization of the ÖVP separate from him exists and is independently economically active. The ministry has therefore reclaimed the entire funding amount of around 24,700 euros.
Eight local chapters of the “Young farmers / rural youth” must also pay back the funding in full, “since there was a breach of the contractual obligation to comprehensively participate in controls due to the complete lack of feedback. In total, this involves almost 57,000 euros.Young farmers / rural youth” is largely unfinished.
In the meantime, according to the broadcast, the last local groups of the Young People’s Party and the Economic Association have repaid the subsidies they received. The two JVP and one local Economic Association groups were talking about a total of almost 16,300 euros.
With the ÖVP-affiliated student representatives of the “community of action” and the ÖVP-affiliated student representation of the “student union“According to the test result, however, together with their sub-associations, they are not sub-organizations of the ÖVP within the meaning of the party law, and they are therefore allowed to receive funding from the fund.
Other organizations were not examined more closely because there was no indication of their status as sub-organizations of a party. According to the ministry, around 55,000 applications to the NPO fund have been approved so far and more than 755 million euros have been paid out. The applications from organizations close to the ÖVP represented a special feature. According to the answer to a parliamentary question, there were almost no such applications for funding from the environment of the other parties.
“ÖVP must learn to abide by the law”
SPÖ federal manager Christian Deutsch accused Kogler in a broadcast that “the Seniors Associationscandal” is being dragged on. After all, the Independent Party Transparency Senate (UPTS) and the Federal Administrative Court have already established that there is no difference between the association and the ÖVP sub-organization Seniors Association would exist. From Chancellor Karl Nehammer he demanded an explanation and the repayment of the subsidies. “It cannot be that the ÖVP abuses the Republic as an ATM.”
NEOS vice club chairman Niki Scherak was pleased with the first claims for reimbursement: “Now we finally know in black and white that the ÖVP and its sub-organizations have wrongly used the tax pot.” He now expects a quick apology from Nehammer and all those responsible who have defended the unlawful behavior. In addition, the ÖVP must pay back the funding immediately and in full and not wait for the final assessment of the individual clubs. “The ÖVP must finally learn that they too have to abide by rules and laws and that the Republic is not a self-service shop.”
Source: Nachrichten
