Tasks remain

Corona agency COFAG will be dissolved in August

The federal government's Covid-19 financing agency will be dissolved in August. The tasks will be divided up among other agencies (symbolic image).

(Bild: stock.adobe.com)

The Finance Committee decided on Thursday to dissolve the federal government's Covid-19 financing agency. The initiative motion was submitted by the coalition. It is planned that the tasks will be transferred to other agencies from August 1.

These include, for example, the financial administration and the state development bank AWS. In future, they will be responsible for processing Covid-19 funding applications and pursuing unjustified claims. COFAG is expected to complete these activities by the end of July and, if possible, close all outstanding funding applications. Unfinished business should then be passed on to the federal government and Finance Minister Magnus Brunner (ÖVP).

With this proposal, the governing parties are complying with a ruling by the Constitutional Court last October (see video above). At the time, the Court found that the transfer of administrative tasks to a limited liability company was inappropriate and that companies were wrongly not legally entitled to financial aid. However, the dissolution had already been planned before the recommendation, according to a press release.

68 institutions can have their say
68 institutions such as ministries, state governments and interest groups now have until June 12 to submit their comments. Approval for the new regulation came on Thursday from the Chamber of Commerce and the Austrian Hotel Association, among others. "Our consistent demands have finally been heard and hopefully we will soon be able to leave the consequences of the economic long Covid behind us," said Robert Seeber from the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber.