The renewal of a water pipe in the Carinthian district town of Wolfsberg in 2017 brought three Carinthians charges of breach of trust. Prosecutor Christian Pirker accused them of having caused damage of 253,000 euros. After three days of the trial, a panel of judges, chaired by judge Uwe Dumpelnik, acquitted all three of the accused. The judge justified the decision by not being convinced of her guilt. The judgment is not final.
Two former employees of the Wolfsberger Stadtwerke who commissioned the project, aged 46 and 47 respectively, and the 58-year-old managing director of the company that carried out the work have been held responsible for the damage. It all started with the replacement of a water pipe for 300,000 euros, but 1.4 million were ultimately billed.
Follow-up order and promotion
According to the defendants, during the construction work on the water pipe, it became clear that the sewer also urgently needed to be renovated, and that there was imminent danger. The company that worked on the water pipe got the follow-up order. One of the allegations against the first and second accused was that this made it impossible to apply for funding from the state, which resulted in high damage. However, a state official testified on the second day of the trial that this was very possible in the case of a follow-up order, up to two years after the work had been completed.
The project was handled by a civil engineering office. His employees said on Friday that he had done everything right. He also warned the Stadtwerke employee that no funding would be possible for the follow-up order. He explained that the information that the sewer system was in urgent need of rehabilitation came from the first accused. The judge then asked him why he had told the accused in writing that the sewer had to be rehabilitated, that didn’t make any sense.
Tailor-made tender
A side note: after the release of the first accused, the witness applied for his job at the public utility company. He also came first, according to media reports the tender was said to have been tailor-made for him. Only the advisory board of the municipal utility finally prevented him from getting the job.
In their testimonies, the accused rejected all allegations that they had acted to the best of their knowledge and belief. The two former Stadtwerke employees spoke of an intrigue. “They wanted to get rid of us.” The acquittal is not final, public prosecutor Pirker made no statement.