Nearly 2 million euros – Senior Association of Upper Austria must repay corona aid

At the end of January, the UPTS was of the opinion that the senior association should be considered part of the ÖVP. The head of the Upper Austrian Senior Association, Josef Pühringer, has always denied this. There is an ÖVP sub-organization called the Upper Austrian Senior Association and a non-profit organization of the same name. And only for that was there corona aid from the NGO fund.

Divorce not relevant under party law
The Transparency Senate legally and formally recognized this separation, but deemed it irrelevant from a partisan point of view. In addition to the same or similar names, the executive bodies with identical staff and associated decision-making processes are considered decisive in the decision.

Vice Chancellor has decided
The rectorate, which is responsible for the corona aid, has now followed this argument and, in consultation with the Finanzprokuratur, has decided that the affected senior associations in various states must repay the subsidies.

Payment term of four weeks
Already today, Thursday, corresponding recovery letters have been sent to the affected clubs of the senior association. The payment term is four weeks. The recovered volume is a total of 2.46 million euros, of which 1.12 million euros goes to the state organizations in Upper Austria, Tyrol, Vorarlberg, Carinthia and Vienna and 1.34 million euros to 298 district and local groups (branch associations) of the Upper Austrian Senior Civic Association -Verein have been omitted. If the financing is not repaid, a judicial clarification will take place.

Pühringer does not want to pay yet
But Pühringer does not want to give up that easily. The request for a refund is “incomprehensible and incomprehensible,” he says when asked by “Krone”. After all, the legal opinion of the UPTS has been challenged in the Federal Administrative Court, so it is not yet legally binding. He is not thinking about repaying the subsidy for the time being: “Everyone should have the right to redress, I see the matter openly.”

“Goods Eligible to Request”
In particular, the Senate for Transparency’s legal and formal recognition that the Association of Seniors is a non-profit organization gives him hope. “That means: Of course we had the right to apply for the financing,” emphasizes Pühringer. What irritated him most: the organizations of the Upper Austrian senior citizens’ association had submitted a total of 650 applications for corona aid – all of which were handled positively. “Why wasn’t that checked right away?”