FCG criticism of Doskozil

Heated personnel debate after trouble with floods

The floods at the beginning of June caused enormous damage in southern Burgenland.

(Bild: Christian Schulter)

After the anger over delays in the payment of flood aid, the dust has not yet settled. Now a letter from the FCG staff representatives is making the rounds with fierce criticism of the transfer of a department head in the Landhaus in Eisenstadt.

In some cases, flood relief has been slow. However, rapid payment was promised. Governor Hans Peter Doskozil then transferred the responsible head of department in the provincial government office and handed over the agendas to a successor in order to speed up processing.

Harsh words
Following the ÖVP criticism, the FCG staff representatives intervened. A letter to colleagues is currently doing the rounds in the Landhaus. "We cannot allow state employees to be treated like fair game. The governor has replaced a deserving colleague with a political employee completely arbitrarily," rages FCG chairman Dietmar Kiss.

Countering criticism
The staff representatives expect that "the governor will protect the employees and not brush himself off against them", the letter states. The response from Doskozil's office followed promptly: "The FCG staff representatives are practising exactly what they accuse others of doing - namely dragging state employees into the limelight for party political purposes. That is regrettable."

"Quick action required"
Doskozil was only interested in speeding up the processing of financial aid by restructuring management responsibility. "The governor must act when the situation requires it," his office emphasized.

Many households benefit
In the meantime, a contact point has been set up for those affected in southern Burgenland, and from Thursday there will be consultation days in Oberwart. A total of two million euros in financial aid has already been pledged, according to the governor.

What is also new is that there will be a payment on account of up to 15,000 euros for certified damage over 25,000 euros in order to take the immediate pressure off those affected - 150 households will benefit from this.