Baukartell scandal in Carinthia: Cities defend themselves against multi-billion dollar corporations!

Baukartell scandal in Carinthia: Cities defend themselves against multi-billion dollar corporations!

Villach, Österreich - A huge construction cartel causes excitement in Carinthia: Between 2002 and 2017, involved companies such as Strabag, Swietelsky and Porr also suffered in millions for cemeteries, parking spaces and bridges. The Federal Competition Authority has already imposed fines of 190 million euros against these companies. Villach's mayor Günther Albel (SPÖ) emphasizes that a legal financial service provider has now been found, which enables the communities to go to trial against these billions of companies. Albel adds: "That alone would be impossible." A joint meeting of the city and municipal association in Carinthia is in preparation to inform about how the legal steps can be implemented effectively. The investigation was recorded at the construction company Kostmann in 2017 after the discovery of anti -antitrust law, and 70,000 paper documents and 57 terabytes of digital data have already been ensured.

Financial support for communities

The economic consequences of the Corona crisis are also dramatic for the municipalities: a failure of 1.4 to 1.6 million euros due to the loss of earnings and local taxes is expected. The Federal Government has therefore decided a comprehensive support package of one billion euros in order to cushion it. This also includes measures by individual federal states that have put together a total of 2.7 billion euros to support their communities. In Carinthia, for example, 250 million euros are available to help the municipalities through the crisis despite considerable revenue decline. The support includes interest -free regional fund loans and other financial resources.

It is particularly noticeable that Tyrol has already provided two support packages with 150 million euros in order to give the communities financial air. Upper Austria also put together an investment package of 344 million euros to support the country's largest public investors, the municipalities, in this time of crisis. The reactions to the aid packages are consistently positive; Community Association President Alfred Riedl emphasizes the importance of these measures to secure jobs and strengthen the regional economy.