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Unclear award criteria, unequal treatment of applicants, missing files – In the dispute over the construction of a battery cell factory in Münster, the Federal Audit Office has harshly criticized the Ministry of Investigation.
By Markus Grill, Martin Kaul, Sebastian Pittelkow, WDR / NDR
In the end, a ministerial official decided to award 500 million euros of federal funds – In the dispute over the construction of a battery cell factory in Münster, the Federal Audit Office has now clearly criticized the award procedure at the Ministry Federal Education and Research (BMBF). This is clear from the auditors’ report. WDR and Ed Present.
The background for this is the dispute over the important industrial-political location for a battery cell research facility in Münster, for which 500 million euros will flow from fiscal funds in the coming years. There was fierce competition for the tendering of the application process. In addition to Münster, Ulm, Salzgitter, Dresden and Augsburg also ran. Since the selected location in Münster borders the constituency of the responsible minister, Anja Karliczek, opposition politicians accused the minister of possible influence. CDU policy had always rejected the allegations and noted that it had deliberately delegated the decision down to its ministry.
Tight race between three locations
Internal ministry documents show the time pressure under which ministerial officials organized the adjudication process and what went wrong. The process apparently went haywire at times, after the ministry gradually declared that more and more decision makers involved were biased or considered biased.
Finally, at the end of June, a department head of the Ministry of Research, in coordination with the Federal Ministry of Economy, decided on the surcharge of 500 million euros, shortly after the Ministry itself defined decision criteria that they had not previously had. no paper. The background: In the overall assessment, the Münster, Ulm and Salzgitter locations were on par. Apparently, in order not to have to restart the whole process, the ministry gave the contract to Münster.
The Fraunhofer Society in a double role
The Federal Audit Office has now criticized the fact that the Research Ministry commissioned the Fraunhofer Society to carry out the selection process, despite the fact that several Fraunhofer institutes participated in the placement requests. As a result, “there was a concrete possibility that the Fraunhofer Society influenced the procedure and the content of the decision,” the auditors write, complaining that the ministry “did not respect the prohibition of participation.” Instead, the ministry “should have initiated and carried out the selection process itself.”
In addition, the auditors criticize the conflicts of interest between the members of the founding commission created by the ministry, which should issue a location recommendation. “All industry representatives on the founding committee had conflicts of interest,” the auditors write, “this was certain knowledge no later than the receipt of applications.” This “should have led to the founding commission being eliminated from the decision-making process on the choice of location,” criticizes the Court of Auditors and asks the Karliczek ministry to only involve external experts in the future “with a sense of proportion “. “As a result, the BMBF reacted too late when it comes to conflicts of interest,” the examiners said.
NRW preferred?
The Federal Audit Office criticizes the preference given to North Rhine-Westphalia. Several federal states had “repeatedly sought contact with the BMBF” prior to the decision. “With some, however, the contact was particularly close and led to information being passed on in the run-up to the selection process.” The BMBF “transmitted detailed information on the property and required buildings” to the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, according to the report of the Court of Auditors. “The other countries did not receive this information, which is important for subsequent application. An objective reason for the unequal treatment was not evidenced.” As a result, the ministry “violated the principle of equal treatment,” the report says.
The auditors also found that the selection criteria had been changed several times. “This led to a different ranking in each case, with Münster’s location going up one place over time,” the report said. Overall, the auditors criticize: “Even if there were significant factual reasons for the decision in favor of the North Rhine-Westphalia location, at many points in the process at least the impression emerged that there was a focus on this location.”
Badly preserved files
In addition, the Federal Audit Office criticized the poorly preserved files in Karliczek’s ministry. The BMBF “had not documented events that were important for processing and decision making.” The “incomplete filing and documentation” also made the audit office “significantly more difficult”.
The minister wanted to be at the request of WDR and Ed he did not comment on the report. The report itself says: “The BMBF shared the assessment of the Federal Court of Accounts that the procedure had weaknesses both in keeping records and in dealing with biases.”
Minister talks about mistakes in the ministry
In recent days, Karliczek had already gone on the offensive as a precautionary measure after the ministry learned of the report from the audit office. In a conversation with the “Stuttgarter Zeitung”, Karliczek called Münster’s location decision correct, but spoke of mistakes in his ministry: “We have to self-critically admit that from the outside it might seem that not all competitors are with them. has provided the same information, particularly about the property and the building, “Karliczek said.
In addition to the Minister’s interview, the Research Ministry addressed journalists on Tuesday with a background discussion to present the Federal Government’s opinion on the often criticized selection process. The ministry said it wanted to establish more binding rules for better file management and a stricter information policy for future procedures, as well as ensure that potential biases from the applicants and reviewers involved are transparent at an early stage.
That is not enough for the opposition. Greens MP Ekin Deligöz, Chairman of the Audit Committee, says: “After the independent audit of the Federal Court of Auditors, the adjudication procedure of the location decision for battery cell research production can really only be considered a sham. Conveying all the flaws of Ms. Karliczek and her ministry takes a long breath. “
