Criticism of the Lower Austrian Covid aid Fund: lack of clarity and controversial funding!

Criticism of the Lower Austrian Covid aid Fund: lack of clarity and controversial funding!

The Lower Austrian state government launched the "Lower Austria Covid aid Fund for Corona episodes" in 2023 in order to cope with the effects of Corona measures. So far, 4.135 million euros have been paid out of this fund. Applications could be submitted by February 28, 2025, and the full payment is to be made by August 31, 2025. State Councilor Christoph Luisser stated that the funds that have not been accessed will flow back to the state budget and confirmed that this process was communicated transparently from the start, as well as noe.gv.at reported .

The Federal Audit Office expressed criticism of the procedure and the financing of this aid fund. It was found that the budgeting of 31.3 million euros was determined without a comprehensible basis and that the actual need for funding was not sufficiently determined. There were also ambiguities in the funding requirements, especially with regard to the term "vaccination impairment" and the criteria for taking club projects into account. In some cases, grants for events were approved that were classified as problematic because they also distributed incorrect information, which also . The Court of Auditors recommended that the responsibility for the content examination clearly regulate to avoid further problems.