The four current state secretaries and their two predecessors will pay back the salaries that were too high at the beginning of their work, ZIB2 reported today. The Chancellery has obtained an expert opinion after opposition criticism. According to this, the maximum payment represents an “erroneous transfer of assets” even before the task is entrusted – although this practice of paying immediately with the promise of the maximum has been around for around 25 years.
This is not the fault of the state secretaries, it is rather a “mistake in administrative action”, the ZIB2 quoted the chancellery as saying. The six state secretaries affected in the current legislative period voluntarily waive the overpayment at the beginning – the total of 14,408.40 euros will be deducted from the next salary transfers.
Susanne Kraus-Winkler (ÖVP/Tourism) received 4,975.66 euros, Florian Tursky (ÖVP/digitalisation) 4,703.01 euros, Claudia Plakolm (ÖVP/youth) 1,938.52 euros and Andrea Mayer (Greens/culture) 333.43 euros. Her predecessor Ulrike Lunacek (Greens), who resigned in May 2020, reimbursed 1,496.89 euros and the current Finance Minister Magnus Brunner 958.89 euros for his previous work as State Secretary in the Ministry of the Environment.
For around 25 years, all predecessors have also received the maximum amount right from the start (currently around 17,000 euros per month), even if they were only entrusted with substantive tasks by their ministers some time after being sworn in – and they received less (currently 1,900 euros per month). month) if they are only representatives. According to the expert opinion obtained from a Salzburg university professor, it is not legally possible to claim back officials from earlier legislative periods. Because in some cases there are no more files, but also because those affected received and spent the money in good faith.
For the future, the government wants to prevent further “erroneous transfers of assets” with a legal clarification. There is already a template for this: a month ago, the Federal Councilors of the SPÖ, FPÖ and NEOS sent a legislative initiative in this regard to the National Council by means of a third-party application. With a request from the SPÖ and NEOS federal councilors, it became known that the current state secretaries had received the higher amounts from the start. At the time, the Chancellery justified this with “longstanding state practice” and carried out a review together with the Ministry of Civil Servants.
