When it comes to the cost of the failed department store in Austria, there is still a wide variety of information about the tax money used. While the Digital Secretariat of State speaks of 950,000 euros, according to the ex-ÖVP Minister of Economic Affairs Margarete Schramböck, this was 1.2 million euros. The SPÖ even speaks of a nice 1.8 million euros – and now confirms its account. The responsible state secretariat did not mention advertising costs of 900,000 euros. However, that remains with the previous information.
The now responsible Digital Secretariat of State – now located in the Ministry of Economic Affairs of Martin Kocher (ÖVP) – recently called the amounts of 1.2 and 1.8 million euros “incomprehensible”. Asked by APA on Tuesday, it said: “The project costs specified by the Secretariat of State are approximately EUR 950,000. This is confirmed by the available figures. In addition, the list also includes costs for information measures in areas such as e-commerce.” The then Ministry of Economic Affairs had launched broad e-commerce initiatives, which were also mentioned in the parliamentary questions.
SPÖ criticizes various statements
According to its information, the SPÖ assessed all the electronic files of the Austrian department store that had been delivered to the U-commission. The total costs thus amount to 1.82 million euros. “That is significantly more than the 1.26 million euros that former Minister of Economic Affairs Schramböck indicated when answering parliamentary questions,” the social democrats criticized on Tuesday. “It is also about twice as much as State Secretary Florian Tursky of the ÖVP Digitization said when asked about the announcement of the shutdown last Friday.”
The failed Austria department store – it was only a rump homepage for companies, which will close in July – is characteristic of the work of the government from the point of view of the SPÖ faction leader in the ÖVP-U committee, Jan Krainer. “The ÖVP tripled its planned costs, put nearly a million euros in advertising, completely messed up the project and finally closed it without a word.”
“Actual costs obscured”
The fact that Schramböck’s successor, Secretary of State Tursky, “hides the true costs in the closing balance and embezzles nearly a million for the Austria department store application fits the bill,” Krainer criticized the APA. According to the SPÖ list, the advertising costs are exactly 909,611.81 euros. TV ads, print media inserts, logo costs and the like are listed.
Source: Krone
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