The state government has admitted that the NRW State Office for Remuneration and Pensions has sent out approximately 45,000 incorrect protest notices to state employees. This is reported in the “Rheinische Post” (Tuesday edition) citing a response from NRW Finance Minister Marcus Optendrenk (CDU) to a small inquiry by the FDP faction. According to the response, a wrong date was used in 45,633 machine-sent notices and 6,156 notices contained an incorrect postal code for the responsible administrative court in Münster – 48,174 instead of the correct 48,147. This has consequences: due to the errors, the notice of protest is deemed incorrect, thus extending the appeal period by approximately eleven months. Gerd Hamme, the state president of the German Judges’ League NRW, expressed his frustration: “Of the 55,000 who lodged a protest, over 2,000 are filing lawsuits. And due to the now occurring error in the notices, further lawsuits are likely to arise due to the resulting extended appeal period.” This unnecessarily burdens the already heavily burdened administrative courts dealing with numerous asylum cases. FDP politician Werner Pfeil interpreted the handwork errors as an alarm signal. “It once again shows: rule of law begins with careful administration. And digitalization does not replace legal diligence.” The FDP is calling on the state government to thoroughly address the issue and implement clear consequences in order to ensure future procedures are legally sound and efficient.
NRW Salary Office sends 45,000 erroneous decisions, burdening administrative courts and causing further appeals.
