Upper Austria’s NEOS boss Felix Eypeltauer said on Tuesday that his party would present a statement of facts against the Senior Citizens’ Association of Upper Austria on suspicion of misuse of funding in the coming days. The Seniors’ Association of the Upper Austrian ÖVP has collected two million euros in corona funding for clubs and non-governmental organizations, although parties and their sub-organizations are excluded from this.
For Eypeltauer it is clear that the money from the NPO fund (“Non-Profit Organizations Support Fund”) was “illegally” pocketed. Once again he was appalled at the “ruthlessness” with which the ÖVP “creates parallel structures in the middle of one of the biggest crises in order to squander tax money”, he alluded to the duplication of the Seniors’ Association as an ÖVP sub-organization and as a non-profit association.
ooh Seniorenbund Chairman Josef Pühringer, in turn, emphasized “that the non-profit association Upper Austria Seniorenbund was founded in 1956, not just now to get help. At that time there was no talk of Corona”. With around 11,000 volunteers and more than 75,000 members, the association is now “one of the largest non-profit social organizations in our country”. These “officials” deserve “appreciation and not condemnation,” Pühringer continued. The money from the NPO fund was entirely “used for senior citizens’ work in the Senior Citizens’ Association,” he said.
Governor Thomas Stelzer (ÖVP) confirmed this to the ORF. According to the senior citizens’ association, the money from the NPO fund was “used as intended, not for salaries”. If the reference were not correct, you would pay back, Stelzer added, according to “ZiB”.
Nevertheless, the Pinken, together with the Greens and the SPÖ, demanded that the almost two million euros “be paid back down to the last cent”: In a joint open letter that went out on Tuesday afternoon, they addressed the ÖVP state party leader and state governor Thomas Stelzer directly : As state party chairman, he not only has to ensure clarification and transparency, but also initiate the repayment of these subsidies immediately.
SPÖ federal manager Christian Deutsch said in a broadcast that the “ÖVP funding scandal surrounding the Senior Citizens’ Association is expanding”. The Young People’s Party, the (ÖVP) Economic Association and the (ÖVP) Farmers’ Association have received funding to which they are not entitled, according to Deutsch with a view to a “Kurier” report from the previous day. Accordingly, the oö. Wirtschaftsbund, a single local group submitted an application for funding, and a repayment is now being arranged there. And a non-profit association is also said to have applied for funding from the NPO fund at the Upper Austrian Farmers’ Association (despite the instructions of the Farmers’ Association not to do so), and a repayment is being checked there, it said.
“The cheekiness of the ÖVP knows no bounds anymore,” Deutsch said on Tuesday about the events. “ÖVP boss Nehammer must finally give in and ensure that all unjustly received funding millions are paid back immediately down to the last penny.” If Nehammer continues to “wall up” and is not prepared “to undo the shameless self-service, then the republic must go to court and take legal action”. In addition, Deutsch criticized the “turquoise-green half-time record”, saying it was “disastrous”.
According to the Ö1 “Mittagsjournal” on Tuesday, the senior citizens’ association referred to the correct submission of the funding applications: “The applications were legally checked in advance by external tax consultants and auditors and submitted in full transparency and in accordance with the guidelines. It can be assumed that the NPO support fund will receive applications checked,” said ORF radio in a written statement from the senior citizens’ association. The results are awaited.
According to Ö1, Vice-Chancellor Kogler’s (Greens) department responsible for the subsidies said that the Austria Wirtschaftsservice is now examining the matter, which should take “a few weeks”. Kogler himself explained on the sidelines of a press event: “According to the party law, it must be assessed whether there are two organizations at all (the clubs and the political arm of the Senior Citizens’ Association, note)”