Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer has halted controversial privatization plans for three works of Army Repair Logistics (HIL). "The privatization of the works will not be pursued", says a letter from Peter Tauber, Parliamentary Secretary of State in the Ministry of Defense, to members of the Defense Committee. The letter is available to SPIEGEL. First, the "Süddeutsche Zeitung" reported about it.
The army repair logistics is a subsidiary of the federal government. In their workshops in Darmstadt, Doberlug-Kirchhain in Brandenburg and in St. Wendel in Saarland, among other things, the tanks of the troop are maintained. With the decision against the privatization extensive investments are necessary, writes Tauber: about for new construction measures, personnel and in the medium term for the relocation of the tasks of the work in Darmstadt.
The CDU politician Kramp-Karrenbauer sat down more and more clearly from the policy of her predecessor Ursula von der Leyen. Their attempt to privatize HIL cost many millions of euros - including expertise and external legal expertise. At that time Katrin Suder was Secretary of State for Arms, who had previously worked for a management consultancy.
The Committee of Inquiry of the Defense Committee has to deal with the subject in the afternoon. Then it could be discussed whether the Bundestag should file criminal charges for infidelity - that would be a request to the prosecutor to investigate the matter. The investigative committee was set up to investigate the handling of external advisers in the Ministry of Defense. Under von der Leyen, the use of these consultants had massively increased.
Katja Keul, spokeswoman of the Greens for disarmament policy, said in the face of Kramp-Karren Bauer's decision of good news for the employees in the affected plants. The final stop of privatization is overdue, says Keul. From the outset, this was never in the public interest or in the interests of the Bundeswehr, but solely in the interests of the industry, which would have gained a service monopoly.
The privatization plans had caused great uncertainty not only among the approximately 1,000 employees. Also, the coalition partner SPD had still spoken under ex-chief Andrea Nahles in the summer of last year against any further privatization.