At around 78 billion euros, the real net borrowing is four times higher than that shown in the federal budget.
(Photo: IMAGO/Christian Spicker)
Berlin In a new report, the Federal Court of Auditors takes the budget policy of the federal government to court. The draft budget for 2023 does not make “the true state of federal finances clear. The shifting of expenses and debt into special funds and accounting practices distort the picture,” the auditors write.
At around 78 billion euros, the real net borrowing is four times higher than that shown in the federal budget. “In this way, the function of the debt rule is severely restricted,” writes the Federal Audit Office in its analysis of the state of federal finances for the deliberations on the 2023 federal budget, which is available to the Handelsblatt. The 2023 budget will be presented to the Bundestag next week.
The Court of Auditors demanded: “The further considerable open and hidden debt of the federal government must be ended.” Parliament and the federal government should not be succumbed to the temptation “in view of the multiple crisis situation with further expenditures to be expected in even more debt to flee.”
Instead, “clearer, possibly also painful, decisions are needed in order to stabilize the federal budget again at a sustainable and responsible level,” writes the Federal Court of Auditors. “Only in this way can the debt rule take full effect again.”
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The Federal Ministry of Finance must also give Parliament clearer information on the true state of federal finances. In particular, the net borrowing must be apparent from the budget.
The Federal Court of Auditors also criticizes the fact that the federal government always finances “state expenditure with dubious effectiveness”. As a result of the tax distribution, the federal government lost around 100 billion euros between 2022 and 2026 alone through waivers in favor of the federal states.
In fact, the federal government finances the balanced budgets of the federal states. “He has thus weakened his own financial basis,” according to the Court of Auditors. The federal government must again take more account of its own financial situation compared to the federal states.
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