Probably the most turbulent year in the history of Energie Ried is coming to an end – and the company’s management has set the course for the future: the Supervisory Board and the General Assembly have been reconstituted. At the same time, the decision was made to make claims for compensation against the former managing directors. This was decided unanimously in meetings of the individual bodies on Thursday evening.
Lukas Oberwagner will take over the chairmanship of the Supervisory Board. The previous chairman, Karl Danninger, resigned his post after 27 years in this function – “according to plan”, as it is called in a broadcast by Energie Ried. Oberwagner has many years of experience in the control committee, he tries to ensure transparency and in the past few months he has campaigned for a complete clarification of the malversations caused by the former management. So Lukas Oberwagners appointment as chairman of the supervisory board is justified, the election is to take place next week. “I stand for open processing and close cooperation with the authorities,” said Oberwagner. He would also like to try “to make Energie Ried a pioneer in the field of green energy in our region”.
Karl Danninger thanked them for the constructive cooperation, all the members of the supervisory board had always shown great commitment and tried to do their best for the company.
No more mayor solo
A significant change was decided in the function of the general assembly of Energie Ried. So far, this has been represented solely by the mayor. That will now change, as Energie Ried announces: “Bernhard Zwielehner is expanding the committee to include his Vice Mayor Claudia Schoßleitner and Vice Mayors Thomas Dim and Peter Stummer and with this step underlines the importance of Energie Ried for the municipality.” The Mayor of Ried sees this step as a sign of new beginnings: “We fought for a year to clear up the malversations. From now on, the focus is on creating a successful company for all citizens,” says Mayor Bernhard Zwielehner.
Compensation claims to ex-managers
Energie Ried will also assert claims for damages against the former management – this resolution was passed unanimously by the General Assembly. As reported by the OÖN several times, the former managing directors (they retired at the end of 2020) are said to have transmitted incorrect data to the regulatory authority E-Control for years in order to receive excessive payments for the company. The presumption of innocence applies to the two ex-managers.
The sums involved can be guessed at from the 2020 annual financial statements, because the management of Energie Ried is legally obliged to set up provisions for past damage. “The amount of this provision was set at 8.15 million euros in consultation with external experts, resulting in a balance sheet loss of 6.7 million euros,” said the statement from Energie Ried. Although the annual financial statements were approved, the Energie Ried committees did not approve the actions of the old management, which was still responsible until the end of 2020. (rokl)
Source: Nachrichten
