Mayor Mike Schubert (SPD) wants to tighten the rules for deleting e-mail accounts in City Hall that seem no longer needed. There will be instructions for this, he announced in the youth welfare committee of the city council. The reason for this is the omissions that have become known and the lack of documentation about the scandal surrounding daycare fees that have been set too high in the past decade – which is why Potsdam had paid back more than 30 million euros to parents.
A report commissioned by the city councilor had recently revealed massive shortcomings in the calculation of the fees – but due to the lack of files, gaps in the memory of the actors involved and the deleted e-mail inbox of the then youth welfare office, no direct responsibilities could be derived. Schubert explained the deletion by merging this office with another area – the IT department then “regularly” asked whether the mailbox was still needed. That was denied. “It mustn’t happen again,” Schubert complained.
The representatives in the youth welfare committee also concluded that the report was not able to provide the expected amount of information. At the same time, recommendations for future action were agreed. The town hall must ensure that the derivation is comprehensible in future calculations. However, the committee also criticizes the unclear legal requirements for daycare contributions. This would be obsolete with a general exemption from contributions for parents, the committee recommends towards the state level.
To home page
