As of: January 20, 2024, 9:00 a.m
By: Magnus Reitinger
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To compensate for the land consumption in new construction projects, compensation areas must be created or upgraded.
According to the auditors, the basic approach of the city building authority with regard to compensation areas urgently needs to be made more transparent.
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The income and expenses from parking ticket machines, the ecological compensation for construction projects and the city's cultural program: These are three of the fields that the auditors of the Weilheim city council have recently worked on in detail.
And for the first time in a long time they had to voice a complaint.
Weilheim
– There are many hundreds of items in the city of Weilheim’s budget.
The City Council Audit Committee examines some of them closely every year.
Five council members from across the parliamentary groups belong to this.
They met six times last fall to review the city's 2022 financial statements.
The committee determines the test areas itself and takes advice from colleagues on the city council.
Horst Martin (SPD), chairman of the audit committee, outlined the results in the city council's main committee this week.
In addition to a few recommendations for things where there is a "need for optimization", this time there was also a real "complaint" for the first time in many years - which is basically the auditors' sharpest sword.
It was about the city's cultural program, which includes two productions at the Weilheim Festival and two guest productions in the city theater every year.
Theater director in dual function
Andreas Arneth works as a theater director for the city for 30 hours a week and is also a partner in the Weilheimer Festspiele GbR.
According to the audit report, Arneth “declared credibly and conclusively” that there was no mixing of the two activities.
However, it was criticized that in his municipal work he himself checked the invoices of the Weilheimer Festspiele GbR factually and arithmetically.
This practice arose due to staff shortages, explained Horst Martin when asked by Tagblatt, and it is by no means assumed to be “cheating”.
But the responsible department in the town hall was asked to stop this approach immediately - which has now been done.
In addition, the committee recommends considering the introduction of an electronic ticket booking system in the city's events office.
The currently different ticket sales systems for guest and festival productions in the city theater “cause problems for the administration and are confusing for theatergoers”.
According to Martin, a “big point” in the most recent audit was “the handling and processing of the compensation areas” that are necessary to compensate for land use and landscape interventions in construction projects.
In recent years, the city has repeatedly purchased green and forest areas in order to create compensation areas for the so-called eco-account.
But the way the city building authority deals with the compensation areas is “not necessarily transparent,” said Martin in the main committee.
In some cases there were no notes, in others there were only handwritten notes about the withdrawal of individual areas from the eco-account;
there is a lack of a proper overview.
Municipal utilities collect 25,000 euros for emptying the parking machines
The auditors therefore recommend that you immediately create an up-to-date digital overview with all the necessary information, including costs.
In addition, a “compensation area cost reimbursement statute” must be issued so that the city can bill those responsible for the actual costs of providing the compensation areas.
According to the city building department, both are already in the works, Martin told our newspaper.
According to the audit report, the city council must also make a resolution “on the decision of who will award organic space to whom”.
The team of examiners also examined the city’s “above-ground parking space management”.
As a result, the municipal utilities billed the city of Weilheim a flat rate of 25,000 euros in 2022 for emptying the parking ticket machines.
The recommendation is that the town hall must regularly check whether this is justified at this level.
Relief from the city council is probably just a formality
Overall, the audit committee and the main committee unanimously recommend that those responsible for the 2022 financial statements be discharged. The decision on this will be made by the city council - which should only be a formality.
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The audit committee evaluates in the following year whether its complaints and recommendations are implemented.
Last year's two recommendations (we reported) have not yet been implemented, which is the result this time.
The responsible department has not yet been able to implement the request to create more transparency in the management of city housing “due to staff departures and difficult replacements”;
But she is there now, reports Martin.
And the requested change in IT in the town hall (i.e. in the technology for electronic data processing) will not be reviewed until next fall.