Research makes clear: – VP-related clubs must repay Corona aid

The Kogler division had instructed Austria Wirtschaftsservice GmbH (AWS) to further investigate whether recipients of funding who are formally a non-profit organization and thus meet the application conditions under the party law are still parties and thus excluded from the fund. Such more detailed tests are usually performed randomly or on the basis of information.

Exams not over yet
A large part of the tests – for example for three state organizations of senior citizens’ associations in Upper Austria, Carinthia and Tyrol – are still ongoing. The trigger for the more in-depth investigations was a NEOS question answer, which revealed, among other things, a controversial grant of almost two million euros to the Upper Austrian Senior Citizens Association. However, the first results are available.

Seniorenbund Vorarlberg classified as close to the ÖVP
According to the broadcast, the “Vorarlberg Senior Citizens’ Association” could not explain in its statements that there is a separate sub-organization of the ÖVP and that it is economically active independently. The ministry has therefore reclaimed the full subsidy amount of around 24,700 euros.

A final legal assessment was not yet possible for the state organizations of the “Seniors’ Association” in Upper Austria, Carinthia and Tyrol; According to a spokesperson for the department, the other four government organizations for seniors have not applied for financing from the NPO fund.

Local clubs must refund in full
Eight local associations of the “Jungbauernschaft / Rural Youth” also have to repay the funding in full “because the complete lack of feedback violated the contractual obligation to fully participate in checks”. In total, this concerns approximately 57,000 euros. The investigation of the associations of the Tyrolean “Young Farmers / Rural Youth” is for the most part not yet completed.

According to the broadcast, the last local groups of the Youth Party and the Economic Association have since repaid the subsidies received. The two JVP and one local Economic Association were talking about a total of almost 16,300 euros.

Student representatives are spared
According to the test result, the student representatives of the “Action Community” and the student representatives of the “School Union” and their sub-associations, which are close to the ÖVP, are not sub-organizations of the ÖVP in the sense of party law, and they can therefore receive funding from the fund. receive.

Other organizations were not investigated further because there was no indication of their status as sub-organizations of a party. According to the ministry, about 55,000 applications for the NPO fund have been approved so far and more than 755 million euros have been paid out. The applications from organizations that were close to the ÖVP were special, as appears from the answer to a parliamentary question that there were almost no funding applications from the environment of the other parties.

Scandal postponed?
Federal director of the SPÖ, Christian Deutsch, accused Kogler in a broadcast that “the scandal of the seniors’ association” was dragged out. After all, the Independent Party Transparency Senate (UPTS) and the Federal Administrative Court had already determined that there was no difference between the association and the ÖVP sub-organization Senior Citizens’ Association. He demanded clarification and reimbursement of the subsidies from Chancellor Karl Nehammer. “It cannot be that the ÖVP misuses the Republic as an ATM.”