By Gunnar Schupelius
The suspicion of corruption is in the room, the allegations are very specific. Nevertheless, Patricia Schlesinger has so far contributed very little to the clarification, says Gunnar Schupelius.
Patricia Schlesinger, the director of the RBB, is faced with serious allegations. It’s about the handling of fee money and the suspicion of incorrectly billed expenses as well as questionable consulting contracts.
The discrepancies were first revealed by the news platform Business Insider. The daily newspaper “Die Welt” quotes from a fire letter from the staff council and the editors of the RBB, in which it is demanded “that all allegations in the room be cleared up immediately in order to restore the shattered trust.”
This is public service broadcasting, which is paid for from compulsory fees. Ms. Schlesinger receives an annual salary of 303,000 euros. It is therefore particularly important that the allegations are actually “remedied immediately”. But the director has done little to help so far.
She speaks of a mixture of “conjectures, insinuations and wrong conclusions”, which she does not want to publicly correct herself. A law firm from Munich was commissioned with the investigation instead.
The allegations weigh heavily. First, it’s about regular dinners in her private apartment, which are said to have been billed at the expense of the station. The catering company rewrote the bills so that fewer guests were recognizable than were present. Were private invitations disguised as business appointments in this way?
Secondly, it is about the chairman of the RBB board of directors, Wolf-Dieter Wolf. His job is to control the director.
But he also has other jobs, as a real estate entrepreneur and as head of the supervisory board at Messe Berlin. From this position he is said to have passed consultant fees of around 140,000 euros to Ms. Schlesinger’s husband.
Thirdly, in return, Ms. Schlesinger is said to have awarded consultancy contracts for a central RBB construction project to real estate experts with whom Wolf had a business relationship.
Apparently, one hand washed the other in order to channel money into their own pockets. If these accusations were to be true, Ms. Schlesinger would have done crooked things together with the man who is supposed to control her and her husband, for her own enrichment. A swamp would open up, corruption at the top level would come to light.
The allegations are a few days old and so concrete that Ms. Schlesinger, her husband and Wolf-Dieter Wolf could provide clarification without first having to hire a Munich law firm, which in turn is paid from fee money.
Why haven’t they already done so? Let them tell the truth! You will know them.
Is Gunnar Schupelius right? Call: 030/2591 73153 or email: [email protected]