Around ten years ago, Olching got 60 crèche places thanks to the new “Denk Mit!” Children's home in Esting.
The city was working with an investor at the time.
However, it did not go smoothly: The Free State cut part of the funding.
That led to a dispute in court that only ended now.
Olching
- One of the main characters in the matter is Bernd Schulte-Middelich, himself from Olching.
He is known from numerous groundbreaking ceremonies in the region.
He is the founder and owner of the Asto Group in Gilching.
The company built or had the “Denk Mit!” Children's home built in Esting around ten years ago.
60 urgently needed daycare places were created in two construction phases.
“We are still proud of the crib that we built,” says Schulte-Middelich today.
However, there have been complications that resulted in a lengthy legal process that has only recently been ruled out.
Schulte-Middelich doesn't want to say much more about that, he wants to draw a line after ten years.
His balance is simply as follows: "In court and on the high seas you are in God's hands."
Private investors
The lawyer on the other side reports in more detail: Ewald Zachmann.
He represented the city of Olching in the case.
At that time it was the case that there was a federal funding program for the construction of day-care centers.
The municipalities were able to fall back on private investors.
The city of Olching did that.
The Asto Group acquired the property in Esting from the Evangelical Church and rented it out to a private provider for a specific purpose (read: day care center). According to Zachmann, a contract was signed between Asto and the city, in which it was assured that the expected funding amount of over 1.4 million euros (in two installments) would mainly be passed on to cover the construction costs. Here it was also clearly regulated: If the guidelines for the award (a basis for the granting of funding) are not adhered to, this is solely at the company's financial expense. And this is exactly what happened. The company had hired a general contractor, individual trades were not put out to tender. The same entrepreneur was then commissioned with the second construction phase.
The Free State saw serious award violations in this and cut the funding "by a considerable amount", as Zachmann calls it. Around 270,000 euros were cut. According to Olching's lawyer, 100 percent of the seriousness of the violations could have been deleted (instead of around 20 percent).
Now you can say it like this: In the order in which the funds flowed or should have flowed, the parties met in court - only the other way around.
First, the city of Olching sued the Free State.
The verdict in May 2020: The reduction was justified due to errors in the allocation.
As a result, Asto tried to take legal action to get the money and sued the city.
But according to Zachmann, the contract had secured itself well against financial damage.
In the end, Asto withdrew the lawsuit.
The case is closed.
There will be no more judgment on the matter.
There was a similar problem in Eichenau
There were problems not only in Olching, but also in Eichenau.
Ten years ago, Asto also built a Denk-Mit daycare center and the then headquarters here.
As treasurer Alexander Zydek reports, there was also an allocation error, and the grant amount was also reduced.
However, the municipality had regulated this through the funding notification, stipulating by default that the procurement law was to be complied with.
It was agreed out of court that the community had not suffered any financial damage.
Mayor Peter Münster (FPD), who was not yet in office at the time, explained: “We didn't have any problems with Asto at the time.
But with the government of Upper Bavaria. "
In the neighboring communities of Groebenzell and Puchheim, the cooperation with Asto went off without such incidents, as the town halls say.