When it comes to the personnel and financial resources of the federal security agencies, the Grand Coalition acts according to the motto: Much helps a lot. This shows an evaluation of the SPD budget expert Martin Gerster. Accordingly, the number of posts for federal police officers, employees of the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) and cyber sheriffs has increased massively in recent years and should continue to grow according to current budget plans.
For the Federal Police alone, the number of posts grew from 38,297 in 2013 to almost 46,848 in the current year. For 2020, according to the draft budget for the Ministry of the Interior by Horst Seehofer (CSU), another 2,000 additional jobs are planned.
Since 2013, the BKA has increased by about half of its staff, from 5012 to 7562 jobs planned for 2020. The number of employees of the Bonn Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) is expected to almost triple, from 575 (2013) to 1405 in the coming year. The code-cracking agency Zitis in Munich, which was created in 2017, has since grown to 190 positions, and next year according to current drafts 232.
Looking for staff
Not all of the previously created posts are filled. In particular, the search for new talent in the IT sector is difficult for some authorities, as companies often offer significantly higher salaries and a more attractive work environment.
The significantly increased security apparatus, which has been posting a total of 15,000 new jobs since 2013, causes considerable additional costs. The total budget of the Ministry of the Interior more than doubled during this period to 15.3 billion euros (for 2020), 6.36 billion of which will be spent on security. Intelligence services such as the protection of the Constitution are not yet taken into account, and the Federal Intelligence Service, which is based at the Chancellor's Office, and the Military Shielding Service, which is responsible for the Defense Department, are not part of this cost structure.
The budget for the security area currently planned for 2020 roughly corresponds to the sum that the Interior Ministry had in 2013 for all its areas of responsibility - at that time still without construction and homeland. Not included here are the latest plans of Horst Seehofer in the fight against right-wing extremism, which also provide hundreds of new jobs at the Federal Criminal Police Office and the protection of the Constitution.
This topic comes from the new SPIEGEL magazine - available at the kiosk from Saturday morning and every Friday at SPIEGEL + and in the digital magazine edition.
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