Brucknerhaus affair:

LIVA needs millions in aid from the City of Linz

The affair surrounding the Brucknerhaus led to the resignation of Klaus Luger as Mayor of Linz last year. LIVA Supervisory Board Chairman Meinhard Lukas (pictured) is to clarify the events.

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/Bild Brucknerhaus: Horst Einöder Bild Meinhard Lukas: Markus Wenzel)

A cash flow analysis at the Linzer Veranstaltungsgesellschaft (LIVA) following the Brucknerhaus affair reveals a financial deficit of EUR 1.7 million as well as management errors. For example, too few reserves were set aside for excessive overtime - one employee even accumulated 2,800 plus hours.

The next act in the Brucknerhaus affair is a "ruthless" audit. "And the word 'ruthless' is meant very seriously," says Meinhard Lukas. The former university rector took over the chairmanship of the supervisory board of the Linzer Veranstaltungsgesellschaft (LIVA), to which the Brucknerhaus belongs, last year. Under his leadership, the inconsistencies surrounding the appointment of the former artistic director Dietmar Kerschbaum, which are known to have cost him and the red ex-mayor Klaus Luger their jobs, are to be dealt with.

Loss of 1.7 million euros
The application process for a new artistic and commercial management of the LIVA is currently underway. In order to provide the future management duo - who are due to start in April - with an economic overview, Lukas has initiated the aforementioned cash flow analysis.

And this has now revealed that in the 2024 financial year, the event company is expected to post a loss of almost 1.7 million euros, with a total budget of around 30 million euros. According to Lukas, the main reason for the shortfall is management errors.

For example, the costs for the Klangwolke were exceeded by 200,000 euros. Unscheduled consultancy services - which became due after Kerschbaum's release from his duties for a compliance report and legal disputes, among other things - amounted to 425,000 euros.

Overtime got out of hand
The biggest chunk, however, was the personnel costs, which were one million euros higher than planned. Overtime in particular got out of hand: At the end of 2023, the time credit of LIVA employees had added up to more than 18,000 hours, with one individual employee even accumulating more than 2,000 plus hours. Insufficient provisions had been made for this: "In the 2024 financial year, this questionable accounting of previous years is now hitting us with full force," says Lukas, who emphasizes that this "completely inadequate monitoring of overtime" was not the responsibility of the employees.

LIVA needs a cash injection
All in all, LIVA now needs a financial injection from the City of Linz due to the departure. This puts the ball in the politicians' court, as the subsidy of EUR 1.5 million requested by the event company must be approved by the municipal council. And this is where things could get tricky. In an initial reaction, ÖVP party leader Michaela Sommer announced that her parliamentary group would only agree "if we finally decide on complete transparency and all the facts are put on the table". Above all, this also applies to consultancy and legal fees. "You really have to ask yourself how many skeletons are still lying in the Brucknerhaus cellar."

Ursula Roschger, the Greens' control spokesperson, is also calling for transparency in terms of "what is behind the cost items published today". For her, however, it is clear "that we must support the LIVA and cannot allow the continued existence of the company to be jeopardized".

"Declaration of bankruptcy by the city government"
Georg Redlhammer from the Neos party, Chairman of the Audit Committee, is really angry with all the other parties: "They should have listened to me in 2023 when I was the only one to point out the disastrous audit report on LIVA. But they didn't care about the mismanagement of the artistic and commercial management. A declaration of bankruptcy by the city government!" According to Redlhammer, however, the Neos will agree to the 1.5 million euro grant because: "The newcomers must now be able to work freely without the baggage of the past because they can't help the way Kerschbaum and Co. have managed the company."