Despite urgent criticism of several “hot spots” in the administrative apparatus, Thuringia’s ombudsman is far from extinguishing all the fires.
Erfurt (dpa/th) – From the point of view of the Ombudsman, the administrative apparatuses in Thuringia often react too sluggishly to criticism. From Kurt Herzberg’s point of view, “precarious” situations in individual authorities continue to last for affected citizens – and for far too long – even after reports have been received. For example, “serious problems in making appointments” at the Erfurt Immigration Office that became known last year continued to exist. “As far as I know, nothing happened there. There is no indication that there is any relaxation.”
Herzberg said he drew the attention of both the Thuringian Ministry of Migration and the Thuringian Ministry of the Interior and Municipal Affairs to the lack of appointments for necessary auditions. Migration Minister Dirk Adams (Greens) then promised him a supervisory examination by the state administration office. Nevertheless, it is still not possible to book an appointment online for mandatory visits to the authority, and the waiting times for appointment requests remain “remarkable”.
The state administration office confirms that the test has been carried out. In fact, the foreigners authority lacks staff and rooms. However, the city is trying very hard to fix the problems. According to a spokeswoman for the state administration, the authority wants to move into a new property by 2023 – which would solve the space problem. It remains open who will then sit in the additional spaces gained. The personnel problem is known, but cannot be solved despite the vacancies advertised by the city. There were simply no applications, said the spokeswoman.
The second major construction site, where Herzberg sees no relaxation, is directly in the hands of the state administration office. Here, prospective master craftsmen, as well as specialists and business economists, waited almost half a year for their applications for the so-called “Aufstiegs-Bafög” to be processed. At the end of December 2021, the Ombudsman was aware of around 1,000 applications that were in Weimar but had not been processed. At the end of June 2022 there were around 1800 – almost twice as many. “So no relaxation,” notes Herzberg.
In its response to a small inquiry on the subject in July, the responsible Ministry of Economics and Science was vague. The average processing time was reduced from almost eight months to five months by more staff. “Further-reaching process optimizations in application processing are aimed at reducing the current processing time.”
But Herzberg also has good news to report. In the case of “long overdue alternative practitioner exams”, which he denounced in March, things have now eased. There are also no new concerns about the problem of exchanging a driver’s license. “There is also my impression that things are starting to stutter,” Herzberg said.
