Austria's ministries: increasing costs and personnel explosion at a record level!

Austria's ministries: increasing costs and personnel explosion at a record level!

In Austria's ministerial cabinets, which were recorded on the cut -off date 7 April, a total of 364 employees work. This number was made public in a joint sentence by the parties ÖVP, SPÖ and NEOS. Various items are available in the cabinets, which are occupied by the different ministries. Defense Minister Klaudia Tanner (ÖVP) has the most employees at 35. Her colleague, Interior Minister Gerhard Karner (ÖVP), employs 29 people, while the Chancellery under Christian Stocker (ÖVP) and an additional 19 for State Secretary and coordination.

The distribution of the employees shows a clear picture of the resource layout in the government. Vice Chancellor Andreas Babler (SPÖ) has 17 cabinet members and 11 in the State Secretariat, and Foreign Minister Beate Meinl-Reisinger (NEOS) can fall back on 20 employees and 5 coordination units. In addition, State Secretary Jörg Leichtfried (SPÖ) has 9 employees at his side, while Josef Schellhorn (NEOS) works with 8 employees.

costs and criticism of personnel policy

The total monthly costs for the staff amount to 2.8 million euros. Neos General Secretary Douglas Hoyos emphasized that the use of tax money must be made efficiently. Compared to the former government under ÖVP and FPÖ, which had over 395 employees in May 2019, the current number has dropped by 31. Critics such as the FPÖ say that State Secretary Karoline Edtstadler (ÖVP) was also included in the calculations, while the Greens consider the cabinet to be "extremely inflated". Alma Zadic (Greens) has also denounced cuts in the field of human and climate protection.

The new government of Teuraz, which consists of the parties ÖVP, SPÖ and NEOS, currently has 273 employees in the ministerial and state secretary offices, compared to secretariat and chauffeurs. The distribution of employees in the current federal government shows a dominant position of the ÖVP with 142 employees, followed by the SPÖ with 105 and the NEOS with 26 employees. In comparison, it was only 241 employees under the Turkish-green predecessor, which corresponds to a decline of 11.7 percent.

rising costs in the government offices

In addition to the personnel costs, which add up to around 32.5 million euros annually, there are further expenses for ministerial and state secretary salaries as well as costs for vehicles, cell phones, laptops and meals. It should be noted that the personnel costs in cabinets have grown continuously since 2017. The total costs for the government offices now amount to 38.4 million euros, which, according to SP-MP Philip Kucher, represents a "never existing cost explosion".

of 163 Under the coalition of SP Chancellor Christian Kern and VP Vice Chancellor Reinhold Mitterlehner, the staff in the current government rose to 247. This means an increase of 21 employees compared to two years ago under former Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (ÖVP). The Federal Chancellery justifies this high staff status with corona apandemia and the associated crises that have required new positions.

The dynamics in the Austrian ministerial cabinets arouse question marks both and the general personnel policy and will certainly initiate numerous discussions in the future.

Read more about this in the articles of krone , today and OE24