The Court of Audit (RH) has criticized the Ministry of Education’s Corona approach quite a bit. A rough report shows that about a third of the antigen tests delivered in 2021 – equivalent to some 35 million tests worth € 74 million – are not exactly known where they are located.
According to the Court, the Ministry of Education has not ensured that consumption or supplies in schools are properly monitored. According to information from RH, a total of 97.5 million Covid antigen tests will be delivered to about 6,000 schools in 2021, the “Standard” and the ORF “ZiB 1” reports.
Exact whereabouts unknown
However, according to RH, who also criticized the frequent changes to corona rules in schools, the specific whereabouts of only 62.3 million Covid antigen tests can be traced. The rest cannot be allocated – so it may still be stored in the schools or used up.
“The Ministry could not guarantee a well-functioning monitoring of the consumption of antigen tests or the existing stocks,” the RH concludes – even though inventories were carried out repeatedly. This led, among other things, to the ministry ordering a Covid test in 2021 as part of a rush purchase, although stocks were still available from Bundesbefertigung GmbH.
At the Ministry you can understand the RH criticism. This “correctly points to problems that arose with the inventory of schools in 2021”. However, the tests have not just disappeared. “However, teachers were either sick or didn’t have time to do a comprehensive inventory in addition to all the other burdens”.
„Inventory not well documented“
Many tests were therefore not registered. This is a “very unsatisfactory state of affairs”, but one would not have wanted to ask the schools to carry out a complete overhaul at this time. According to the Ministry of Education, the corona tests have not disappeared, but only “not well documented in terms of inventory”.
FPÖ: „hold those responsible accountable“
Criticism hardly comes from the PVV. As early as 2021, the FPÖ found the state of affairs regarding the procurement policy of the Ministry of Education under the leadership of the ÖVP strange, it said in a broadcast on Saturday. Therefore, under the leadership of FPÖ education spokesman Hermann Brückl, a request was made for a financial audit to be carried out by the Court of Auditors.
“Because for the school tests alone, according to information from the then ÖVP minister (Werner) Faßmann, 139 million euros were spent in the education committee on June 9, 2021, while only 84.15 million euros had been budgeted for this. A positive test would have cost 16,000 euros,” explains Brückl.
Source: Krone
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
