BERLIN (dpa-AFX) – Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) has failed with a plan to fill the chief post at the federal highway company. Wissing wanted the former Lower Saxony FDP parliamentary group leader and environment minister Stefan Birkner as the new boss – but Birkner has now canceled, as the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” (FAZ / Monday) reported. The reason given was weeks of tugging in the committees and also in public.
The Ministry of Transport stated that the supervisory board was responsible for filling the vacant positions in the management of Autobahn GmbH des Bundes. “In order to enable a seamless change at the top of the management board and to fill the vacancy as quickly as possible, the supervisory board has decided to commission a personnel consultancy to look for further candidates in addition to the shareholder’s proposals.”
The previous chairman of the management board of the Autobahn company, Stephan Krenz, had announced his departure in the spring; the finance management is also to be filled. According to Wissing’s plans, Birkner was to become Krenz’s successor. However, this announcement from the beginning of April was criticized. The civil servants’ association accused Wissing of wanting to fill the post without a job advertisement and without the participation of the supervisory board. According to the FAZ report, the accusation that the minister wanted to look after a deserving party friend and also bring an important organization under his control also played a role.
CDU faction deputy Ulrich Lange spoke on Monday of a failed “Mauschel maneuver” by Wissing. The vacant positions must now be filled quickly in order to ensure the company’s ability to act./hoe/DP/ngu