The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

rbb: The Berlin Court of Auditors has been examining consultancy contracts since 2017

2022-11-18T11:11:53.025Z


The Berlin Court of Auditors deals with rbb contracts. A consulting contract with an ex-editor-in-chief could also come into focus, which the former director Schlesinger could have concluded.


Enlarge image

Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg in Berlin

Photo: Carsten Koall / dpa

According to a report, Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (rbb) has concluded a well-paid consultancy contract with its outgoing editor-in-chief Christoph Singelnstein – in addition to his lifelong entitlement to an annual pension of more than 100,000 euros and his statutory pension.

This is reported by NDR and rbb, citing confidential documents.

Overall, according to the report, Singelnstein should receive a monthly amount from rbb that would roughly correspond to the amount of his last salary as editor-in-chief.

That would be around 15,000 euros per month.

According to the research, it is possible that Singelnstein's contract ran through Patricia Schlesinger, the former rbb director and then head of the human resources department, as the report says.

180,000 euros annually

At the beginning of 2018, Singelnstein's contract was prematurely extended until 2023 as part of the conversion of management salaries in rbb to a bonus system that has since been abolished.

According to the report, the contract was apparently supplemented by one of the controversial pension regulations.

Through this, Singelnstein was entitled to a pension that was to amount to 55 percent of his last salary.

The entitlement would be for life.

According to the report, Singelnstein's last salary would have been €180,000 a year.

Despite the extension of the contract until 2023, rbb announced in 2020 that Singelstein would retire in April 2021.

No reasons were given for this, but it would have been said that the former editor-in-chief would remain "connected to rbb as a consultant," according to rbb.

"On the one hand, according to the contract, he should continue to advise the broadcaster for as long as his contract as editor-in-chief originally ran - until March 2023," the rbb report continues.

"On the other hand, according to research by the NDR and the rbb research team, he received a monthly fee of 6,300 euros through the consulting contract during this time, booked as 'author/other activity'".

A spokesman for rbb said in response to a request from the broadcaster that "one could not comment on contract details for contractual reasons (non-disclosure clause)".

However, according to the report, he confirmed that Singelnstein had "taken on some tasks for rbb" since leaving.

The rbb wanted to "secure the expertise of Mr. Singelnstein for the rbb".

According to the rbb report, Singelnstein himself referred to non-disclosure clauses in his contracts and therefore left questions about them unanswered.

Court of Auditors examines old contracts

All rbb consultancy contracts concluded since 2017 are now being examined by the Berlin Court of Auditors.

According to a report by rbb, the auditors are currently getting an overview of how many contracts are involved.

A spokesman for the agency confirmed this to SPIEGEL.

This could also bring the Treaty of Singelnstein into the authority's field of vision.

According to a statement, the Berlin Court of Auditors and the Brandenburg State Court of Auditors had already agreed on a joint audit of the RBB.

Accordingly, in addition to the overall economic situation and the “preparation for the construction of the digital media house”, “employment contracts for senior employees” should also be examined.

an

Source: spiegel

All business articles on 2022-11-18

You may like

Trends 24h

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.