While the Bavarian state has spent 5 years and over E180m on the project, it has failed to integrate relevant government bodies, police and firefighter networks and also lost the support of the Bavarian citizen and university network. Through mismanagement, over E8.5m have been wasted in the last years. The bulk of this amount has been wasted through giving the contract for the rollout and management of the network infrastructure to a company owned by the Bavarian Bank and the state bank of the state Thuringia and Bavaria. No other offer was considered for the contract, in fact, a public offer was not even initiated. According to the audit commission, a cheaper and better solution for the extension of the networks by another competitor had already been ignored in 1995.
State chancellor Erwin Huber rejected the accusations, claiming a cheaper solution was not available at the time. He also emphasised the project's success in attracting businesses and said that Bavaria is now seen as par with London and is ranking among the top 5 of Europe's high tech areas.
The opposition on the other hand sees in the criticism a failure of head of Bavarian state and failed chancellor candidate Edmund Stoiber. The Bavarian SPD criticises the uncontrolled spending of money earned through the privatisation of state businesses, claiming mismanagement had caused taxpayers the loss of millions of euro.
The project which started in 1995 has so far cost the Bavarian state E180m; E76m of which was generated through privatisation.
Quelle: europemedia
