Image: MARTIN STEINKELLNER ARCHITEKTURF
The construction of the campus building for the medical faculty of the Johannes Kepler University (JKU) in Linz is currently below the planned cost of 115.7 million euros. However, they could be blown up if another 20 million euros are added if the input tax is not allowed to be deducted, reported the Upper Austrian State Audit Office (LRH), which subjected the project to an unsolicited review. Basically, the project was implemented as planned.
Kepler Universitätsklinikum GmbH (KUK) and the state assumed that the construction of the building would be exempt from sales tax. The Federal Finance Court is still examining whether this is actually the case. “A negative decision would increase the total project costs by more than 20 million euros, which the state of Upper Austria would have to cover in its budget,” explained LRH director Rudolf Hoscher in a press release on Tuesday.
According to the usage agreement, the state is making the – new and rented – areas of the four campus buildings available to MedUni free of charge until the end of 2027, as well as 60.2 million euros for any maintenance and reinvestment costs. Unused funds are to be transferred directly to the JKU at the end of 2027. “From 2028, the Johannes Kepler University will have to pay the maintenance and reinvestment costs, including any rents, to the Kepler Universitätsklinikum GmbH,” says Hoscher. The JKU also bears the operating costs. The KUK must clarify the point in time or the specific modalities of the transfer of this “JKU reserve” in consultation with the state of Upper Austria.
In the budget path of Art. 15a Agreement, the federal government provided both the specified total amount of around EUR 224.9 million (price basis 2014) and the investment sum for the “First Investment Building” of around EUR 105.4 million (price basis 2014) gross including sales tax. The state made a commitment to the federal government to provide the structural infrastructure for the operation of a medical faculty at the JKU.
A forecast of the actually expected construction costs as a comparison to the budget is not included in the medium-term financial forecast. The LRH recommends examining content-related additions in this regard.
In addition, the controlling body saw potential for improvement in the project management and award processes as well as in the presentation of costs. In the future, clearly regulated responsibilities should be created through standard industry performance models. The LRH recommends tightening up the review of bidder gaps and showing the individual cost components separately in order to ensure comparability and create the basis for efficient cost controlling.
The reactions from politics were divided, ÖVP and FPÖ were satisfied, SPÖ, Greens and NEOS warned that lessons for the digital university and future projects should be drawn from the success of the huge MedFakultät project. OÖVP club chairman Christian Dörfel described the construction of the campus building of the medical faculty as “exemplary”. The recommendations of the state audit office would be “accepted and taken into account in future projects.” ooh FPÖ club chairman Herwig Mahr saw “a long-standing liberal demand implemented with the medical study places in his own state” and “the good grade” of the LRH as “gratifying”.
ooh SPÖ control committee spokesman Peter Binder, Green club chairman Severin Mayr and NEOS club chairman Felix Eypeltauer all said the same thing: A mega-project succeeds “if it’s well prepared and all players pull together,” said Mayr. “Governor Stelzer should take this to heart when it comes to the digital university and send the project back to the start immediately,” demanded Binder. Eypeltauer said, “A lot of the procedure at the MedFakultät would have been advisable for the IDSA as well”.
Source: Nachrichten
