The affair surrounding the resigned director Patricia Schlesinger at Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg plunged ARD into a crisis. At Bayerischer Rundfunk, the next blow to the neck for the broadcasting group is looming. It’s about company cars and chauffeurs again.
The public broadcasting group ARD is probably facing the next damage to its image. The “Bild” newspaper reports on a case at Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR), which apparently has parallels with RBB and ex-director Patricia Schlesinger. Technology director Birgit Spanner-Ulmer has two company cars and two exclusive chauffeurs there, the newspaper reports.
Spanner-Ulmer will be picked up by the drivers in their home town of Eichstätt and brought back later. The distance from Eichstätt to the BR headquarters in Munich is 110 kilometers. That would mean that the chauffeurs have already spent several hours getting the IT director to work. The broadcaster justified the two drivers by saying that one of the two was also available in the event of illness or vacation. In addition, the technical director had to be on the road throughout the BR broadcasting area.
The BR director also enjoys a special status when it comes to private trips. “The directors can use an in-house driver for business trips. The exception here is Ms. Spanner-Ulmer, who uses two drivers alternately and, according to the service contract, can also use them for private trips,” said a BR spokeswoman for the newspaper. The company car is an Audi A7. If Spanner-Ulmer is traveling without a chauffeur, BR also provides her with a Ford Mondeo station wagon.
The ex-RBB director Schlesinger was also allowed to use her Audi A8 and chauffeur for private trips. However, this is prohibited in other ARD broadcasters such as SWR or WDR. Because of further felt allegations, the 61-year-old had resigned from the top of the Berlin-Brandenburg radio and the ARD. The new ARD boss Tom Buhrow explained that he considers public questions about salaries, offices, company cars and the entire infrastructure to be “legitimate”. However, he was annoyed that “now, so to speak, everyone is under general suspicion.”
