The auditors of the accountant do not find a conscientious treatment of tax money at the state positions in the country responsible for the forest fund.
On the homepage of the country, the excellent reputation of the forest fund is also praised as a “non -deskcratic, flexible and accurate financing instrument”. The work was also positively identified by the Federal Audit Office in 2015 and was recommended to the other federal states for imitation. According to the latest report, which was published on Friday, the future text should be adjusted a bit.
Only styria was praised. Vorarlberg contributed the examples of the “worst practice”. In particular, it was investigated when the forest fund was investigated, which was launched under the then agricultural minister Elisabeth Köstinger (ÖVP) in 2020. The financing for foresters with pandemics, damage caused by the Schorsbever and bad wood prices was justified. The fund was initially set up in parallel to existing EU-Co-financed subsidies for the 2021 and 2022, and around 890 million euros were available in Austria from 2014 to 2027.
Financing requirements
The Ministry of Agriculture determined the specifications and apparently had the countries that were instructed to process and approved the financing. “Regulations for adequate and effective risk -based control procedures were largely missing,” said the examiners. The financing calculation was carried out according to standard costs, some of which were based on criteria that were not a condition for financing. The state sexaminators also critically noticed: “In Vorarlberg it was striking that in particular such subsidies were used in which income from wood sale could also be achieved.”
The responsible state positions in Styria were considerably more conscientiously treated with tax money, as is emphasized. In Vorarlberg, on the other hand, there were framework applications from the Vorarlberg Forest Association without knowledge of the beneficiaries and without detailed data for the financing granted. This does not correspond to the specifications of the special Waldfonds guideline. In the case of framework applications, the payment reports from the States of Carinthia, Tyrol and Vorarlberg were only related to the individual financing receivers. So it was not clear who the recipients were.
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.
