A German Government Agency’s Highway Company Pays Higher Salaries to Employees Without Clear Justification, Audit Finds
A recent report by the German Federal Audit Office has revealed that the privately organized Autobahn GmbH, responsible for the construction and maintenance of highways and federal roads, pays its employees significantly higher salaries than comparable federal personnel, often without a clear reason.
According to the audit, the company’s employees, unlike federal employees, are entitled to a full 13th monthly salary, which amounts to an additional ten million euros in costs. One former state employee was promoted seven pay grades higher, resulting in a yearly increase of around 25,000 euros.
Furthermore, a decision made in early 2022 to reduce the CO2 emissions of company cars was deemed unsuccessful and was later removed from a collective bargaining agreement, allowing for bonuses of around 8.6 million euros to be fully paid out at the end of the year.
Although the federal government had deliberately distanced itself from the public sector’s collective agreement, the audit office emphasized that this did not exempt the company from the obligation to act economically.
The Ministry of Transport must work with the Finance and Interior Ministries to counter the “drift apart of the federal government’s remuneration structures” said Sascha Wagner, a budget politician from the Left Party, warning that “the federal highway company must not degenerate into a self-service store.