The Federal Transport Minister had big plans for the German motorways. Federal Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer wanted a control centre that would reduce bureaucracy and manage the roughly 13,000 km long motorway network: the Bundesautobahngesellschaft, described by Scheuer as a “cerebrum”. The CSU politician raved about the”biggest reform in the history of motorways”.
At the beginning of 2021, responsibility for the construction and operation of federal motorways and federal roads passed from the Länder to the federal government. Previously, he had founded the Autobahn GmbH specifically for this purpose. But with Scheuer’s Autobahn “cerebrum” so far, the problems are especially great:
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The IT systems of the Bundesautobahngesellschaft do not match those of the road administrations of the federal states.
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Last year, the Federal Audit Office criticized the merger of the federal-state authority Deges, which was previously responsible for highway planning, with the new company as “constitutionally questionable”.
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The merger between Deges and the Bundesautobahngesellschaft planned for early 2021 had to be called off by Scheuer. When the federal company will start its work is open.
Almost as much money spent on consultants as originally planned for the entire project
What is certain, however, is that the project has already become many times more expensive than planned. This is clear from reports of the Federal Government to the Budget Committee from November 2020 and from 30 June 2021. The documents are available to DER SPIEGEL.
Accordingly, Scheuer’s ministry already calculated last November with costs of 325 million euros for the reorganization of the motorway network. In December 2016, about one – eighth of the sum – around 41 million euros-had been estimated in the bill at the time.
This was calculated far too optimistically, as has now been proven. Because almost as much as originally planned for the project, the Federal Ministry of Transport has now spent alone on consulting services for the construction of the Federal Motorway Company, a total of 38,4 million euros.
External input was apparently particularly needed in 2019. The ministry paid around 25 million euros that year to law firms and management consultancies for external support in the reorganisation of the motorway administration. According to the report to the Budget Committee, the 25 million were by far the largest single item for external consultations in the House of Scheuer in 2019. At that time, the Ministry of Transport spent a total of 48.9 million euros on consultants.
“Already a case for a committee of inquiry”
Scheuer is trying to” save the highway reform with millions for ever new consultants ” says Sven-Christian Kindler, budget spokesman for the Green Parliamentary group. In order for the project to be launched at all, the minister is “throwing taxpayer money around”.
Gesine Lötzsch, deputy leader of the left parliamentary group in the Bundestag, also considers” in view of the grandiose false start, the high consulting costs “to be”particularly questionable”. Autobahn GmbH is “actually already a case for an investigative committee,” Lötsch tells DER SPIEGEL.
On the other hand, a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Transport emphasizes that the start of the motorway company was successful. “For the highly complex and deeply in the federal order reaching reform of the Federal Highway administration” external advice was necessary. However, the ministry now needs less advice and has continuously reduced needs and expenses for advice and support services.
In the opinion for the Budget Committee, the Ministry had already referred to the special circumstances and the uniqueness of the project. In addition, the ministry stressed that a significant part of these consultancy contracts has now been terminated.
