After the ticket scandal

Gswb boss must answer to city politicians

Gswb boss Peter Rassaerts has been summoned to the control committee on Monday.(Bild: Markus Tschepp (2), Krone KREATIV)

On Monday, Gswb boss Peter Rassaerts will appear before the control committee at Mirabell Palace. A critical report is on the agenda.

After all. Gswb boss Peter Rassaerts faces critical questions from local councillors in the Control Committee on Monday. The Control Office report, which triggered the end of the once powerful housing boss, is on the agenda.

Not every boss of a public company has accepted the invitation from committee chairman Christoph Ferch. However, Rassaerts has assured him of his attendance these days. Just under a year ago, Leonhard Schitter, CEO of Upper Austrian Energie AG, ignored an invitation to the Audit Committee. At the time, it was about a critical report by the control office on the Salzburg AG trolleybus crisis.

The latest mold scandal in Gswb apartments will also be a topic on Monday.(Bild: Tröster Andreas)

There will be questions above all about the ticket system
The problem for the city politicians is that they have no means of preventing the managers from not appearing. Unlike in parliamentary committees of inquiry, there is not even a fine for those who refuse to appear. Rassaerts, head of Gswb until the end of the summer, wants to come anyway. Numerous critical questions await him, for example about Gswb's controversial ticket system. The inspection office found that not all customer inquiries were actually recorded.

Some tickets were left lying around for months. Most of the open tickets have now been processed, according to the latest reports. The inspection office also criticized the sharp drop in the number of employees in its report. In the six years of the audit period, the number of employees fell from 159 to 139.

Neos want to contest Ferch's chairmanship
The Neos were the main proponents of inviting Rassaerts to the Audit Committee. The Pinks, who halved from two to one mandate in the March election, would have liked to break away from the custom of giving the chairmanship to the smallest parliamentary group. That is Ferch with his list of salt. The Neos questioned his suitability due to Ferch's good relationship with the SPÖ and KPÖ Plus. "That's not true at all," says Ferch. And addressed to the Neos: "With my experience, I know how I might find out more in interviews than through pure confrontation."