By Michael Sauerbier
Huge trouble in the RBB about the new head of the institution Katrin Vernau (49, formerly WDR)!
The ARD boss and WDR director Tom Buhrow (64) had sent his head of administration to the Berlin scandal broadcaster. Their mission: to ensure order in the finances after the pomp and show scandals – and to save the reputation of public broadcasting.
Now the new director had to admit: Despite the top salary, RBB also pays for her second home.
Vernau had cashed out in front of the workforce on Friday, explaining: the broadcaster must save 41 million euros in the next two years – because predecessor Patricia Schlesinger (61) had squandered the money of the contributors with full hands.
Now the program is being cut and vacancies in the station are not being filled. Vernau announced that executives should forgo bonus payments of EUR 400,000.
But then the savings commissioner was asked about her own allowances …
Vernau admitted that she collects 1,000 euros a month for her “pleasant apartment” near the Berlin RBB headquarters. Despite an annual salary of 297,000 euros!
► “There’s no justification for that,” says Christoph Reinhardt (52), who represents the 1,500 freelancers, “but Ms. Vernau doesn’t have a guilty conscience at all. This is perhaps normal in the ARD boardroom.”
► RBB editor Christoph Hölscher zu Vernau: “It is not clear to me why a rent subsidy is required for your salary. For me, that’s the old RBB!”
The director justified herself with her rapid move from Cologne to Berlin in September. Vernau: “I live with two suitcases, and I could not have taken office until January.”
At the weekend she rushes to her main residence on the Rhine in the ICE. With a “Bahncard100” 1st class (7000 euros/year) – paid for by the RBB. Reason: The RBB boss does without a company car and chauffeur.
► “The director would be well advised to waive the rent subsidy,” says free representative Reinhardt. The employees are most outraged that Vernau only now admitted the housing subsidy. “If she acts according to the same logic as her predecessors,” says Reinhardt, “you wouldn’t trust her to represent a new beginning.”
On Sunday evening, RBB admitted to BILD that Vernau even received “up to 1,500 euros” a month for the apartment.