SPÖ demanded answers from head of department Blümel in the Federal Council.
The working group set up by the Ministry of Finance after the bankruptcy of Commerzialbank Mattersburg last year will present its final report shortly. The department head Gernot Blümel (ÖVP) announced on Thursday in response to an urgent request from the SPÖ in the Federal Council. The SPÖ accused the minister of not participating in the investigation of the “criminal case” and criticized the fact that the financial market supervision had not worked.
In the investigation committee in Burgenland everything that was possible was examined, said SPÖ mandate Sandra Gerdenitsch. The committee came to the conclusion that there was a “collective failure” of the federal authorities: “Why has the control system failed for so many years?” The question also arises as to how the malversations in Martin Puchers Bank could have gone unnoticed for decades by the Financial Market Authority and the National Bank. “This criminal case of a private bank can only be prevented if the banking supervision works, it has not”, the result is 870 million euros in damage, Gerdenitsch justified the urgent request.
In his answer, Blümel stated that the cause was a “large and worrying criminal case” that had to be completely cleared up. Everyone would also have to draw their conclusions in order to prevent similar cases in the future as best as possible. The courts would clarify how many people were involved in the scandal: “In any case, the damage is enormous and the legal proceedings will take years.” You will decide whether and where there have been misconduct, the minister referred to the pending lawsuits.
The minister pointed out that the state of Burgenland, as the auditing association for the cooperative, was responsible for the selection of the auditors: “The decision-makers were aware of this from the start.” The bank and the state have commissioned the auditing firm for decades – this should be questioned. The working group addresses this dual role: “Something like this must be avoided in the future. This is one of the interim results. Blümel did not see the Ministry of Finance as responsible for operational supervision and referred to the FMA and the OeNB in this regard.
