Dispute over the MCI

Endless ÖVP disaster or already a dead horse?

Zeliha Arslan (Greens), Markus Sint (Liste Fritz), Evelyn Achhorner (FPÖ) and Susanna Riedlsperger (Neos, from left).

(Bild: Johanna Birbaumer)

The united opposition in the provincial parliament explains why the audit by the provincial court of auditors on the new MCI building makes sense to them and why they consider the renovation process to be "embarrassing".

Why has the state government now pressed the stop button for the second time on the new MCI university building? Where were the planning errors? Why is the contract with the total contractor still secret and why were 16,000 consultant hours needed?

"Now is the time to come to terms with this construction scandal," explained the united opposition of the FPÖ, Greens, Liste Fritz and Neos yesterday. "The state government has always kept us in the dark about this project, everything we know about it, we have worked hard for ourselves," the four stated yesterday.

An attempt is to be made to shed light on the matter with 343 questions. These are to be answered by the State Court of Auditors by means of a special audit. "A disaster like this must not happen again," said LA Zeliha Arslan (Greens), "the project should now disappear into a black box, we will not allow that to happen."

This is what the second winning project in the architectural competition looked like. LH Mattle pressed the stop button: too expensive

(Bild: Henning Larsen)

A million-dollar grave for taxpayers' money
Fritz-LA Markus Sint believes the question of guilt has been clarified: "The new MCI building was always an ÖVP baby. Now we have seen: The self-proclaimed economic party cannot manage itself." The SPÖ, which was last in charge, could not be released from responsibility either. "With the audit by the Court of Audit, we want to lay the foundation for ensuring that such million-euro graves are no longer dug in future," emphasized Neos-LA Susanna Riedlsperger. 12.5 million euros of taxpayers' money had been wasted on (mis)planning and consultants. FP-LA Evelyn Achhorner, herself an architect, suspects that this is just the tip of the iceberg: "I expect three times as much. Although the project has not even progressed beyond the preliminary design stage."

The opposition has 343 questions, the population is only interested in one: Can the state spend 250 million euros on a new MCI building? The answer is no!

ÖVP-KLubobmann Jakob Wolf

Clarification of political responsibility
The opposition expects the special audit to provide clear recommendations for the future and to clarify political responsibility, even though most of them have long since left office - the MCI disaster goes back that far.

Final end only temporary?
And there are some indications that it will be prolonged. Because instead of a new building, which was recently promised at a cost of 250 million euros, the existing buildings are now to be adapted or renovated - the extent of which is once again unclear to the opposition. "That's not a solution either. Millions are now to be shifted to private investors to fill gaps in the building stock. This is pure destruction of taxpayers' money. We don't want to go down this embarrassing path for Tyrol as a university location," the opposition agrees. They only see a "temporary definitive end" to the new MCI Campus building. "There are alternative locations, such as next to the new House of Physics in Innsbruck, where a functional building could be erected."

Decision "supported by the population"
"The opposition is riding a dead horse with the new MCI building", notes VP parliamentary group chairman Jakob Wolf. "The opposition has 343 questions, the population is only interested in one: Can the state spend 250 million euros on a new MCI building? The answer is no," says Wolf. The decision by LH Mattle to renovate and densify the MCI is "massively supported" by the population.