Munich (dpa / lby) – The high bureaucratic requirements for funding programs are increasingly pushing the municipalities in Bavaria to their limits. “The shackles of an excessive funding system with complex sets of rules must be loosened. The abundance of differentiated funding programs must be reduced, the procedures standardized and simplified,” said the chairman of the Bavarian Association of Cities, the Mayor of Straubing, Markus Pannermayr (CSU), on Monday in Munich. The application for a funding program alone ties up staff and entails costs that are often disproportionate to the benefit.
Not everything has to be regulated, approved and checked in detail according to a differentiated catalog of requirements, said Pannermayr. The complexity of public procurement law, data protection, monument protection or funding programs with all the requirements and control mechanisms can often no longer be dealt with in administrative practice. A “funding jungle made up of programs from the EU, the federal government and the Free State” has long proliferated.
In order to use a funding program, municipalities would have to meet a wide range of requirements and process catalogs of requirements – accompanied by expert opinions, complicated planning steps and testing bodies at district governments or specialist authorities, it said. Municipal building authorities, finance departments, youth welfare offices and school departments have long since reached their limits. Complex procurement law requirements, which often require a Europe-wide tender, would make speedy processing difficult. The tight time constraints and frequently changing requirements also hampered implementation.
“Municipalities need continuity and reliability. Municipal investment power should be fundamentally strengthened with higher flat rates or subsidy rates in municipal financial equalization in order to expand schools, kindergartens, child day care, cycle path construction and local transport as permanent tasks,” Pannermayr demanded. This ensures planning security and reduces bureaucracy. Clear and practicable rules are needed, the details of which are not constantly being changed again and again.
Pannermayr: “A few funding pots are enough if they are well equipped and have a long term.” This would not only help the town halls, but also the district governments in Bavaria. These, too, have long since reached the limits of their capacity during processing.
Bavaria’s Finance Minister Albert Füracker (CSU) emphasized that the Free State is already giving the municipalities a lot of leeway with the municipal financial equalization at a record level of more than eleven billion euros: “Our municipalities can use around 80 percent of the funds from the municipal financial equalization on their own responsibility without great administrative effort and set their own priorities.” Broadband funding has been successfully demonstrating for years that funding is simple and therefore highly effective.
“We mustn’t forget that subsidies are ultimately also tax money,” said Füracker. “Tax citizens have the right to have their money used responsibly. We have to provide targeted funding and use the available funds efficiently.”
