Donations, election costs

Party finances: Court of Audit finds violations at FPÖ and ÖVP

The Court of Audit found violations at the Graz FPÖ Club, a Svazek campaign, the Seniors' Association and the Tyrolean Young Farmers' Association.

(Bild: stock.adobe.com, krone.at-Grafik)

The Austrian Court of Audit (ACA) has found violations of the Political Parties Act at the FPÖ in Graz. The municipal council club is said to have covered election campaign costs that should actually have been paid by the party. A campaign by Salzburg party leader Marlene Svazek is also alleged to have been improperly paid for by the provincial parliament club. The ACA also sees violations at the ÖVP.

In Graz, the public prosecutor's office has been investigating the FPÖ since the 2021 municipal elections. Put simply, the issue is whether party funds were used properly. Relevant for the Court of Audit is the suspicion that the club paid over 110,000 euros that should actually have been paid by the party.

Upper limit of 7719.08 euros per donor
During the audit procedure on the statement of accounts, an insider came forward to the Court of Audit who provided numerous documents and had credible information on the accounts. This confirmed the Court of Audit's suspicion that the local council club had taken over election campaign costs. Local council clubs are allowed to make donations to parties, but these donations must be listed in the statement of accounts and there is an upper limit of 7719.08 euros per donor. The assumption of election campaign costs is considered a donation, but was not listed in the report on the one hand and exceeds the upper limit on the other, according to the ACA.

Stricter regulations for party donations have applied since 2023.

(Bild: Gabriela Gödel)

Accountability reports must be kept separately for 7 years
Insights into expert opinions from the public prosecutor's office suggest to the Court of Audit that the accounts of the Graz FPÖ and the municipal council club are incomplete. As a result, the FPÖ's party auditors would not have been aware of the entire bookkeeping. Due to an amendment to the Political Parties Act, all books and records as well as the supporting documents belonging to these books and records must be kept separately for seven years for financial reports submitted to the ACA from fall 2024. In addition, if there are concrete indications, it is possible for the ACA to check with parties on site whether they have complied with this obligation.

In February, the FPÖ informed the ACA in the statement procedure for the statement of accounts that the provincial party had transferred an amount of 100,000 as a refund to the Graz municipal council club. However, despite being requested to do so, no receipts or proof that the payment was actually made to the club and not to the city party were provided, according to the Court of Audit.

"Is it worth it?"
The auditing body also found an impermissible donation in the "Is it worth it?" campaign with FPÖ provincial party leader Svazek. The Court of Audit suspects that this was not information about the work of the provincial party, but general FPÖ advertising measures. In the audit procedure, the FPÖ had pointed out that Svazek was not a member of the National Council and that, for "precautionary reasons", the financing of the campaign had been split 50:50 between the party and the club. The Court of Audit does not share this argument. For example, the campaign was also about the federal government's coronavirus measures. No connection with the work of the FPÖ's Salzburg state parliamentary club could be identified, meaning that an impermissible donation in the amount of 12,418.06 euros was made.

Marlene Svazek

(Bild: Markus Tschepp)

The ball is now in the court of the Independent Party Transparency Senate
The Independent Party Transparency Senate (UPTS) must now decide whether the suspicion of a violation of the Political Parties Act is true. The UPTS must also deal with possible illegal party donations from the Upper Austrian FPÖ provincial parliamentary club. Specifically, this concerns sponsored Facebook postings by club chairman Herwig Mahr.

Court of Audit also targets Seniors' Association and Tyrolean Young Farmers' Association
The Court of Audit also sent reports to the UPTS concerning the ÖVP. The Court of Audit is of the opinion that there has been a violation of the Political Parties Act because the income and expenditure of the Seniors' Association are not shown in the statement of accounts. Like the UPTS in a non-appealable decision, the ACA considers the Austrian Seniors' Association and the provincial associations to be "subdivisions of the party". In the audit proceedings, the ÖVP stated that an appeal against this decision was pending and that the situation of the Austrian Seniors' Association in 2021 was not comparable with previous years, as "organizational changes" had been made.

According to the Court of Audit, the situation is similar for the Tyrolean "Jungauernschaft/Landjugend", where the income and expenditure should also have been listed in the annual report. The ÖVP denied that this was an "organization of the party". Further reports were received regarding a possible inadmissible donation due to only a symbolic rent for the party by Perchtolsdorfer Immobilien GmbH as well as delayed donation reports in two cases.