[ad_1]
He is a high-level Senate personality who would be a case for the Court of Auditors, if not for its president, of all people, to play a role. Until now, the matter has been treated with absolute discretion because it contains political explosives.
The trigger is the attrition at the managerial level of Interior Secretary Torsten Akmann (SPD). Whether it was Bernd Palenda, once head of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, or former police chief Klaus Kandt, they had to go. Now Akmann couldn’t get on with his head of Department 1, Petra Michaelis.
The secretary of state wanted to return to the position. His preferred candidate: the state chairman of the “Social Democratic Lawyers Task Force” Christian Oestmann. He entered the internal administration in early September, previously being the presiding judge of the administrative court. But where should Michaelis go? At salary level B5 with 9,229 euros gross per month, vacancies are rare.
Initially, the SPD-led Senate Chancellery was offered as a deportation station, but the matter fell apart. A place for Michaelis had to be found elsewhere, that’s where Karin Klingen came into play. The president of the Court of Accounts has excellent relations with the Senate Chancellery. Until his appointment in 2018, he headed the department of “Central Services, Government Planning, Administrative Modernization and E-Government”, which also includes Robert Drewnicki, a close advisor to Mayor Michael Müller.
Klingen and Drewnicki are known by the local SPD Neu-Westend association in the SPD Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf district association, which is headed by Christian Gaebler, head of the Senate Chancellery.
Previously, Gaebler, who offered his boss Michael Müller first place in the district association for the upcoming federal elections, was secretary of state in the internal administration. Klingen is even considered a “party soldier” in the SPD, the House of Representatives elected her president of the Court of Accounts by a narrow majority in 2018, and the red-red-green coalition also criticized the administration’s staff proposal. inside for this position.
[Wenn Sie alle aktuellen politische Entwicklungen in Berlin und Analysen live auf Ihr Handy haben wollen, empfehlen wir Ihnen unsere runderneuerte App, die Sie hier für Apple- und Android-Geräte herunterladen können.]
According to information from Tagesspiegel, Klingen is said to have proposed to subtly clarify the Michaelis case, in the interests of his friends at the party and without publicity. A new position has been created for Michaelis, directly next to the President, since April 1 she is “Head of the Central Department, responsible for the realignment of the Court of Auditors.” Until now, Klingen and her predecessors managed this department themselves.
But the budget law does not provide for a head of the presidential department with a B5 post. But there was also an idea for this: “Salaries will continue to be paid by the Senate Department of Interior and Sports. The Court of Auditors only reimburses the costs proportionally, ”a spokesman for the Court of Auditors said on request. Internal administration pays the salary of the new department head in the audit office. Because according to the information from Tagesspiegel, there was only one possible job with salary level A16: in the month 5834 to 7415 gross euros. With this two-year structure and offsetting the difference, Michaelis was able to keep his B5 salary, although this could constitute a violation of budget law.
The Tagesspiegel newsletter “Checkpoint” sent question catalogs on the subject to the agencies involved. Interior Senator Andreas Geisel (SPD) spokesman replied tersely: “The Senate Administration does not take a position on individual personnel matters.” The Senate Chancellery stated that he had “not worked to” get Michaelis a position in the Audit Office. However, the Senate Chancellery did not respond to the question of whether it was in contact with the State Audit Office regarding the personnel decision.
“It was not necessary to advertise the position”
The Court of Auditors announced: “It was not necessary to advertise the position because Dr. Michaelis was a delegate from the Senate Department of Internal Affairs and Sports. There is no violation of the budget law ”. The construct – the internal administration pays, the prosecution transfers its part – corresponds to the economic and economic administrative action. Because Michaelis will continue to work in the state teller’s office.
At the state audit office itself, the case has caused great discomfort, as can be heard from the House of Representatives. Because to solve a personnel problem of its secretary of state, the internal administration has touched the independence of the audit office. According to the constitution, however, it is “an independent state authority that is only subject to the law”, that “is not subject to any instructions” and whose members control the budget and financial policy of the Senate with judicial independence. . The fact that a Senate administration “delegates” a high public official to this authority and pays it partially does not fit the mandate of this constitutional institution.
[In unseren Leute-Newslettern berichten wir wöchentlich aus den zwölf Berliner Bezirken über politische Mauscheleien – und noch viel mehr [Wenn Sie alle aktuellen Entwicklungen zur Coronavirus-Krise live auf Ihr Handy haben wollen, empfehlen wir Ihnen unsere runderneuerte App, die Sie hier für Apple- und Android-Geräte herunterladen können. Die Newsletter können Sie hier kostenlos bestellen: leute.tagesspiegel.de]
And there are also legal questions about staff cost sharing. When asked what legal basis applies for the transfer of the difference between the A16 position held by Michaelis and the existing B5 salary for the internal administration or another position, the Senate Chancellery responded that no information was available.
The question remains what the president’s motive was for bailing out the Senate in this way. Is it social democratic solidarity? Or calculation? Both of them? For years the management level of the Court of Auditors has tried in vain to move up to the top grade.
Was Michaelis’s deal for money?
In 2017, the Court of Auditors complained that the salary structure was “clearly notably” lagging behind that of other state audit offices. The value of the president, vice president and four director positions had been “unchanged” for more than 20 years. In state politics, therefore, some are already wondering if the Michaelis deal was not about something else, namely money.
Compared to her former colleagues from the Senate Chancellery, who also meet regularly in the SPD district association, Karin Klingen now has a new argument in hand with a view to the upcoming double budget. Because Michaelis now gets as much as the Vice President of the Court of Auditors, that is, B5, and more than the four directors with their B4 positions.
