This emerges from documents that were sent to the U-Committee on the “red-blue abuse of power” and are available to the APA. The “Standard” also already reported. An email from an official in May 2019 to two colleagues at the Ministry of Health shows that he contacted a cabinet employee of the former minister “to pack paper documents under lock and key in archive boxes to the state archives.” And: “It turned out that all the paper from the offices in the FBM cabinet (Federal Minister, note) was destroyed on a large scale. (data protection container disposed of),” it says in the email.
The only exceptions were “ELAK data sets”, i.e. electronic files that were also handed over to the state archives. The official also heard that the head of the cabinet’s office called the archives to announce “that no physical documents from our department are expected.”
Many files blocked for 25 years
Hartinger-Klein had to put up with criticism a few weeks ago. The Greens wanted to discuss the merger of the social security institutions under Hartinger-Klein in the U-Committee, but the Court of Auditors was unable to view many files because, according to the ministry, they were supposed to have been handed over to the state archives sealed as “private files” on May 22, 2019 – and so for Blocked for 25 years. According to a report by the Court of Auditors, the reform caused additional costs of 215 million euros.
In the debate that ensued as to whether a reform of the Federal Archives Act was necessary, all parties appeared willing to talk. Despite the delivery obligation, the State Archives currently have no sanction or access options if a minister declares files as private or does not deliver files at all.
Neos for “shredder ban”
The Neos repeatedly campaign for a “ban on shredding and cover-ups”. Just last week, the Pinks submitted a motion to set a deadline that aims to “establish an obligation to archive all professional messages and channels of the highest state bodies and to enforce consequences in the event of a violation.” The application was rejected with the votes of the ÖVP and the Greens. “The Greens are once once more putting the ÖVP in charge and thus preventing a ban on shredding and cover-ups,” criticized Neos faction leader Yannick Shetty.
However, Meri Disoski, the Green parliamentary group leader in the U-committee on “red-blue abuse of power,” is not quite that simple. The NEOS application, which is several years old, only includes “haptic” documents; digital documents such as WhatsApp messages are not included, she said. But they don’t want to do “half measures” and agree to an application that leaves gaps open.
