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The Court of Auditors lists a number of complaints in its report. The Greens are now calling for director Christian Ortner to be replaced.
Vienna. When the Court of Auditors conducts an audit, it usually finds something to criticize. In this case, however, the criticism is unusually sharp: In the report published on Friday on the Heeresgeschichtliche Museum (HGM), the examiners list a whole series of complaints, including criminal offenses.
However, the auditors are not only targeting the museum itself, but also the owner: the Ministry of Defense did not exercise sufficient oversight.
The audit report fueled a lengthy discussion about the HGM. The museum has faced a number of accusations in recent years. The most serious: It spreads a revisionist image of history, in the museum shop Nazi devotional objects are sold, as well as literature that glorifies the Wehrmacht. A commission of experts created by the Defense Ministry considered that the permanent exhibition “Republic and dictatorship” was not explicitly right-wing extremist, but “was no longer up-to-date and inappropriate.”
In its criticism, the Court of Auditors naturally did not focus on scientific content but on organizational issues. And there was a lot to complain about: the museum does not have an overview of its own collection. The inventory is incomplete, it is not known what there is and neither what can no longer be found. Three letters from Egon Schiele to the museum from 1918 are definitely no longer there.
During an on-site inspection at a branch, inspectors found a bunker full of tank spares of unknown origin. This case could also have criminal consequences for the responsible officer; Charges were filed on suspicion of unauthorized possession of war material.
It is also not uncritical: the museum has purchased 54 exhibits from its director and his deputy, although there are no understandable rules for such transactions. The museum maintains that people went shopping at flea markets. Another point of criticism is directed at related associations: Director Christian Ortner has held various positions on the board of associations that are closely related to the museum. There is a risk of conflicts of interest in close personal, spatial and organizational integration.
Defense Minister Klaudia Tanner said she would send the report to the commission that is reviewing the museum. In any case, he called the need to act “huge.” “I will not stand idly by.” However, the chairman of the commission, Wolfgang Muchitsch, refuses to incorporate the report: it is about the museum’s public access areas, not the structures. The Greens are calling for Director Ortner to be fired. He currently runs the museum on an interim basis because the work was not republished after his term expired at the end of the previous year. A new tender should be held soon.
Evaluate attendance
The Court of Auditors not only examined the Museum of Military History, but also the assistance of the Armed Forces to secure the border and expressed fundamental concerns: there is no evaluation of the assistance operation in terms of effect and benefit, also in view of the sharp drop in the number of refugees since 2015. Incidentally, the armed forces were responsible for only a small part of the attacks.
The examiners also do not see an “essential need” to expand the deployment of assistance to include protection of foreign representations in Vienna from August 2016. The negative effect of assistance missions is that the quality of training of recruits has suffered. By the way, the Armed Forces had to pay for most of the assistance missions: at a cost of 273 million euros between 2015 and 2017, only 90 million euros were replaced.
Recommendations of the Court of Auditors
90 recommendations direct the examiners to the HGM and the Ministry of Defense. Even:
Anti corruption. “The establishment of an anti-corruption culture at all hierarchical levels is recommended.”
Records. “Records of museum entrances must be kept immediately in such a way that an understandable overview of visitor numbers and revenue is possible at all times.”
Sick leave. “The reasons for the high average number of sick days per person must be identified and appropriate measures taken to reduce them.”
Safety. “Security measures must be taken immediately for the proper storage of weapons and tanks at the Zwölfaxing garrison site.”
(“Die Presse”, print edition, October 24, 2020)
