The new federal building minister still has to set up her own ministry. And under the most difficult of circumstances.
(Photo: dpa)
Berlin Klara Geywitz should eliminate the housing shortage, simplify planning and construction processes, reform the building law, mobilize building land, slow down rising construction costs, promote ownership – it is a Herculean task that lies before the Federal Minister of Construction.
The social democrat cannot even fall back on a well-established administrative apparatus. After 23 years there is only an independent building ministry again. Even after 100 days in office, Geywitz still has to do some groundwork.
In addition, the Federal Ministry for Housing, Urban Development and Building (BMWSB) does not yet exist in formal terms. This is only the case when the federal budget for the current year has been decided. And this process occurs only in the summer.
The other ministries do not yet have a valid budget either. Article 111 of the Basic Law authorizes the federal government to make the necessary expenditures. “These are above all expenses that the federal government is legally obliged to pay,” explains Speyer constitutional lawyer Joachim Wieland.
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But there is no such “provisional budget management” in the new Federal Ministry of Building. “Article 111 requires that you have a household,” explains a spokeswoman on request. “We don’t manage anything ourselves yet. Not until July 2022.”
There are still no official cars for the state secretaries
Until then, the former layout of the Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community applies on paper. Were Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) aware of the consequences when, when he took office, he issued an organizational decree which departments and departments would switch from the Ministry of the Interior to the Ministry of Construction?
Specifically, the situation leads to strange constellations – and Minister Geywitz needs good nerves. Example ballpoint pen: At the moment the Ministry of the Interior is still lending material and IT to the new Ministry of Construction. Geywitz writes for it and then pays the “debt” at the end of the year.
>> Also read here: In inner cities there is a lot of unused space for housing
There are also teething problems with the state cars. The minister and state secretary Rolf Bösinger were provided with company cars from the general fund of the federal government. Parliamentary State Secretary Cansel Kiziltepe and Parliamentary State Secretary Sören Bartol do not yet have a company car. Keeping appointments means a lot of logistics.
The house management must therefore not be squeamish for months. Apparently she isn’t either. In the first few days, State Secretary Bösinger used the cordless screwdriver to work here and there in the house himself.
Many positions still belong to the Ministry of the Interior
The staff situation is also one of the adversities. At the moment, only six people actually “belong” to the Federal Building Ministry, “among them, fortunately, the State Secretary,” as the ministry puts it.
There are 300 positions. However, the specialist departments still belong to the Federal Ministry of the Interior in terms of service law, until the two ministries are separated by administrative agreement in the summer. Personnel vacancies are therefore still filled by the Ministry of the Interior for the specialist departments.
A few positions are currently owned by the Ministry of Construction itself and can also be filled by itself. However, the department does not yet have a personnel management system, i.e. the pure technology that guarantees that the people also get their salary at the end of the month.
At the moment, appointments are mainly made by delegations. Later, the employees are then formally transferred to the Ministry of Construction. The dry spell is long: Geywitz will only have the around 400 jobs planned for her house at the end of the year or even at the beginning of 2023.
Incidentally, it is already clear that the office building on Krausenstrasse, a six-story listed building with a paternoster, will be too small for the ministry in the long run. Geywitz therefore likes to advertise work space on various occasions with a wink: “Anyone who knows an attractive free-standing building in Berlin-Mitte is happy to give us a tip.”
More: Building Minister Geywitz is late in launching the alliance for affordable housing