After the searches at the protective mask manufacturer Hygiene Austria on suspicion that masks produced in China were incorrectly labeled and sold as Austrian products, the buyers of the masks are now investigating whether they too could be affected and a recall is necessary. The cause has a political dimension due to the fact that the company's managing director is a relative of the office manager of Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (ÖVP).
A spokesman for Hygiene Austria – the company is a joint venture between the Upper Austrian fiber manufacturer Lenzing and the Palmers textile group – confirmed the raids at two locations on Tuesday. According to the Economic and Corruption Prosecutor's Office (WKStA), it is a matter of suspicion of organized undeclared work and serious commercial fraud.
Hygiene Austria strongly rejects the allegations raised as “baseless” and, according to its own statements, cooperates closely with the authorities to help clarify the situation. It is regrettable here “to be drawn into current political disputes”, so the management. The APA request for the main buyers of the corona protective masks has not yet been answered by Hygiene Austria.
Representatives of the SPÖ and FPÖ have pointed out that the products produced abroad and allegedly relabeled are also made available by parliament.
For whom and in what number the Federal Procurement Agency BBG also bought masks from Hygiene Austria cannot be fully clarified at first – the BBG said it learned about the house searches from the media on Tuesday, as it was called on Wednesday at the APA's request .
Spar: masks made in Austria
“We started immediately with the emergence of media reports and are currently collecting the necessary information in order to be able to check whether and to what extent public procurement measures are being taken on the basis of the BVergG (Federal Procurement Act, note) 2018 or the framework agreements that have been concluded are “, it said in a written statement from the BBG.” The BBG asked Hygiene Austria LP GmbH to comment on Tuesday evening. ” How many masks the BBG commissioned from Hygiene Austria and for which authorities or state-affiliated companies they were intended, the BBG did not want to reveal on request. According to the EU-wide tender (https://opentender.eu/at/search/tender) there were 50 bidders for the 420 million euro contract.
The Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) have obtained 576,000 FFP2 masks with CE certificate from Hygiene Austria via the Federal Procurement Agency from a framework contract, as an ÖBB spokesman said on Wednesday for the APA. Now one wants to wait for the investigations of the WKStA.
Protective masks were put into circulation by retailers in particularly large numbers. “We took note of the reports with concern because we deliberately bought many of these masks,” said Spar spokeswoman Nicole Berkmann when asked by the APA. Talks have already been held on this “at a high level”. The spokeswoman emphasized that the masks given by Spar to its customers are safe. “We have 100 percent traceability that the masks we buy are definitely made in Austria at the Wiener Neudorf site.” The raw material also comes from Austria, “and we have test reports for our masks that are really FFP2 mask quality”. Therefore, the masks will be given to employees and customers as before.
The Rewe group (Billa, Merkur, Bipa, Penny) has also purchased several million masks from Hygiene Austria. “We are currently checking this internally and are in contact with Hygiene Austria,” said Rewe spokesman Paul Pöttschacher. At the moment the masks are still on sale, but the quality is checked internally via quality management. Rewe also obtained masks from the Styrian producer Aventrium, but also from China.
The discounter Lidl Austria claims that it has not obtained any masks from Hygiene Austria.
Parliament also got masks
The raid on the domestic protective mask manufacturer Hygiene Austria also occupied the Ibiza committee of inquiry on the sidelines on Wednesday. The SPÖ and FPÖ pointed out that the products produced abroad and allegedly relabeled are also made available by parliament. Because the company's managing director is a relative of the office manager of Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (ÖVP), the SPÖ sent a parliamentary question to the Chancellor.
As the Parliamentary Directorate confirmed in response to an APA request, MNS masks from the domestic manufacturer Hygiene Austria are in Parliament's inventory. However, these were not obtained directly. Rather, it was a “request from the Federal Procurement Company (BBG)”. There the company appears as one of several dozen providers for the procurement of protective masks (current status of the company: “in examination”).
SPÖ Vice Club boss Jörg Leichtfried recalled on Wednesday the relationship between the Chancellor's office manager and the Hygiene Austria managing director (she is married to Palmers board member Luca Wieser and is related by marriage to Hygiene managing director Tino Wieser). By means of a parliamentary inquiry, Leichtfried therefore wants to know whether the Chancellery has also bought masks from the company and whether the company has intervened in this regard. “While hundreds of thousands of people are unemployed in Austria and thousands of entrepreneurs have to fear for their existence, a few were doing the business of their lives in the middle of the Corona crisis”, Leichtfried criticized in a broadcast.
FPÖ club chairman Herbert Kickl also pointed out at a press conference: “A very fine company in which the Federal Chancellor moves.” Until a few hours ago, this was the company's “parade testimonial” – but now his helpers have apparently tried to cover up these traces. In addition to the “close association” of his office manager, the ORF board member Gregor Schütze sent by the ÖVP is also responsible for the company's press work.
In the committee, all groups hoped for a quick legal processing of the cause. The company had spoken of “baseless accusations” by the Economic and Corruption Prosecutor's Office (WKStA) and accused it of being drawn into daily political disputes. The judiciary must work quickly and – depending on the case – quickly indict or suspend the proceedings, demanded ÖVP parliamentary group leader Wolfgang Gerstl.
