The Saxon State Audit Office has once again issued an urgent warning against rising personnel expenses in the Free State. Despite the declining population, the Free State is continuing to increase jobs and staff, criticized President Jens Michel on Thursday at the presentation of the second volume of the annual report of the State Audit Office. More and more new positions restricted the scope for action over generations.
Michel also called for greater budgetary discipline. After overcoming the corona pandemic, stabilizing the budget should have top priority. Instead, the gap between income and expenditure in Saxony is widening, according to the President of the State Audit Office.
According to the report, the number of jobs in the state service has recently increased significantly: from 2016 to 2021 by around 9,000 to more than 93,000. At the same time, an increasing number of these positions cannot be filled at all due to the shortage of skilled workers. These permanently vacant jobs would tie up budget funds of at least 417 million euros. Almost half of the personnel expenses in the core budget went to the teachers – for whom the Free State has considerable difficulty finding the necessary staff.
In their report, the auditors also scrutinized other items – such as the new building of the Saxon Development Bank (SAB) in Leipzig. The property, on which a new building had been erected for 165 million euros, was too large for SAB’s space requirements. Appropriate project management must be set up for effective control of such large construction projects, the State Audit Office demanded.
This time, the Court of Auditors presented its annual report in two stages. Volume one was released in July. The inspectors expect more timeliness from the division into two volumes.
