After the cost explosion in the conversion of the WDR film house, the state audit office has now become involved. The measure serves to check the profitability and finances in the houses financed by broadcasting contributions. The finance committee identified “transparency deficits” early on.
The State Court of Auditors is examining a million-dollar conversion of the West German Broadcasting Corporation (WDR) in Cologne. The construction project of the largest ARD broadcaster involves the conversion of the film house in the city center, in which future television and radio programs are to be produced – the estimated total construction and planning costs had increased to 240 million euros. The State Audit Office of North Rhine-Westphalia confirmed on request that an audit was in progress.
“Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger” and “Correctiv” reported about it first. The Court of Auditors went on to say: “The first results from this audit are not expected until mid-2023 at the earliest.” Only at this point in time will it become clear whether the Court of Auditors will actually issue an audit report on this construction measure. The audited body can then comment on this. According to the public broadcaster, the test was announced in February. Audits of the public broadcasters by the state audit offices is one of several instruments to check the profitability and finances in the houses financed by broadcasting contributions.
The WDR attributes the increase in costs for the conversion project to “massive price increases in the construction industry”. The 240 million euros are the total costs of the project with technical installations, broadcasting technology, IT, rentals, relocation costs and other items. The total budget originally registered with the Finance Commission KEF, which is an independent body that keeps an eye on the finances of public broadcasting, initially amounted to 130 million, later around 160 million euros – until the budget was then expanded to 240.1 million euros.
According to earlier information from the WDR, the film house has to be renovated because the more than 40-year-old building no longer meets the current requirements and statutory fire protection requirements in technical areas. A newsroom is to be set up in the building. The conversion of the film house is one of the current major investments in public broadcasting. According to the current KEF report, a planned loan of 63.9 million euros in 2024 has also been registered for partial financing.
The finance committee complained about the construction project that there had been “considerable transparency deficits” in the registration process for the project, but at the same time recognized that WDR had helped to clarify the matter. At the same time, the Commission emphasized in the report that was published this year that it still had doubts about the economic viability of the measure and decided to extend a freeze of EUR 69.1 million, which had already been announced in the previous report, until the next report and one to maintain a binding total cost calculation. Elsewhere in the report it is said that the renovation of the WDR film house is significantly higher than the costs of comparable new construction projects.