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Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD)
Photo: Leo Schulz / aal.photo / IMAGO
The traffic light coalition and, above all, the Ministry of the Interior spend a lot of money on external advice.
In its first six months, the new federal government of the SPD, Greens and FDP concluded contracts worth at least 271 million euros for external advice and support.
This emerges from a response from the Ministry of Finance to a request from the left-wing parliamentary group in the Bundestag, which SPIEGEL has received.
The dpa news agency first reported on it.
According to this, from the time the traffic light government took office on December 8, 2021 to May 31, 305 contracts were concluded, 80 of them worth 237.5 million euros by the Ministry of the Interior, which is led by SPD politician Nancy Faeser.
In second place is the Ministry of Transport with 23 contracts over 6.8 million euros, which mainly affect Deutsche Bahn.
The house of FDP politician Volker Wissing points out, however, that the information is not complete due to the short deadline for the answer.
This is followed by Christian Lindner's (FDP) Ministry of Finance with 17 contracts worth 5.6 million euros and Robert Habeck's (Greens) Ministry for Economics and Climate Protection with 16 contracts worth 4.8 million euros.
commitment disputed
The involvement of management consultants and other outside experts by the federal government is controversial.
Critics believe that purchasing expertise is too expensive and, given the thousands of employees in the ministries, not necessary.
They also fear too much influence on government work.
Proponents, on the other hand, expect new impetus from an outside perspective or use experts for special tasks that do not require permanent employees.
This can apply, for example, to tasks in the IT area.
In 2018, then-Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen came under pressure because of high spending on external advice as part of the so-called advisor affair.
At the time, the Ministry had awarded the contracts illegally.
SPIEGEL also reported on it.
Left faction leader Dietmar Bartsch criticized the traffic light coalition's consultant spending and spoke of an "irresponsible use" of tax money.
"The traffic light ministers obviously have to distrust their officials, otherwise the many new consultancy contracts cannot be explained," he said.
»While the money is running through the hands of the citizens due to the out of control inflation, the traffic light parties are spending it with full hands.«
col/mrc/dpa
