Düsseldorf (dpa / lnw) – For the second time within a few weeks, the State Audit Office (LRH) has raised fundamental objections to the budget plans of the North Rhine-Westphalian government. In a statement published on Monday, the LRH criticized that the planned loan-financed special fund of up to five billion euros was not sufficiently justified. A significant impairment of the state’s financial situation as a constitutional requirement for an exemption from the debt brake has not been plausibly demonstrated. First, the “Rheinische Post” reported on the statement.
With its majority in the Düsseldorf state parliament, the black-green coalition had identified an “extraordinary emergency situation” for NRW last week. This makes it possible to take out loans beyond the limit of the debt brake.
The government wants to set up a “special fund for crisis management” worth up to five billion euros for the consequences of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. It is to be anchored in a second addendum to the 2022 budget law. The SPD, FDP and AfD had voted against the determination of an emergency situation, among other things, because of constitutional concerns.
The LRH complained that the legal purpose of the special fund had to be specified. In addition, the specific loan financing requirement is missing – as is a repayment plan. “The present bills do not show the “considerable impairment of the financial situation of the country”,” the Court of Auditors sums up.
SPD opposition leader Thomas Kutschaty spoke of the “second landing in breach of the constitution within two weeks”. FDP parliamentary group leader Henning Höne also attested to the coalition being a “constitutional total loss”. The state government must identify and prioritize potential savings in the regular budget. “At least part of the crisis aid could be realized via the core budget,” said Höne.
The LRH had already expressed significant constitutional doubts about the government’s original budget plans last month.
