A critical audit by Germany’s Federal Audit Court has sharply rebuked the federal government’s handling of the €500 billion Special Assets Fund for Infrastructure and Climate Neutrality (SVIK), exposing fundamental flaws in its planning and implementation. The report, presented to the Bundestag’s Budget Committee and revealed by “Handelsblatt”, raises serious questions about the justification, accountability and true scope of this unprecedented level of public debt.
The core criticism centers on the government’s inability to clearly articulate the very purpose of the SVIK. Approved in the spring by a broad coalition of CDU/CSU, SPD and Green party members, the fund was ostensibly created to bolster Germany’s economic competitiveness and drive new growth through significant borrowing. However, the audit court found the Federal Ministry of Finance demonstrably unable to define tangible economic growth targets or to assess the fund’s contribution to achieving them. This lack of clarity undermines the entire justification underpinning the record debt.
Beyond the absence of clear objectives, the audit further highlighted a disturbing practice of moving funds from the core federal budget into the SVIK, a maneuver that contradicts the original intention of securing genuinely “additional” investment. The report stated that it was frequently unclear why planned expenditures were deemed supplementary rather than simply being reallocated from existing resources. This blurring of boundaries raises concerns about the true scale of new investment being generated and suggests that the government has potentially inflated the fund’s impact.
Auditors also challenged the ability of responsible ministries to consistently demonstrate that proposed expenditures met the definition of investment, further eroding confidence in the fund’s operational integrity. The report’s findings represent a significant political challenge for the governing coalition, demanding a fundamental re-evaluation of the SVIK’s structure, accountability and its effectiveness in stimulating sustainable economic growth. The audit court’s criticism casts a long shadow, prompting scrutiny and potential re-engineering of a program intended to be a cornerstone of Germany’s economic future.