Opaque Finance am Theater Erfurt
When you talk to city councilors, many complain about the lack of documents that would help clarify the matter. Meanwhile, the city’s audit office is clarifying how the Erfurt Theater’s million-dollar deficit came about – estimates currently put it at three million euros. Results should be available at the end of April.
External auditors address the same question, but without clarifying the allegation of embezzlement. Some city councilors criticize this behind closed doors. The SPD faction is keeping a little more reserved. Stefan Schade puts it this way: “It’s about complete information and protection of those affected.” This refers to those who were mentioned in connection with the allegations of abuse of power by the theater leadership.
“We would have liked a different solution,” said Schade, referring to the termination agreement with Montavon. “The city council rejected this,” said Schade. A first version of the termination agreement has been rejected. Now we are renegotiating.
It’s about the reputation of the theater and a solution for both sides, which is likely to be expensive, at least for the city. The director is still on leave. His annual salary is 180,000 euros. According to the contract, he also has the opportunity to earn extra money by staging at other houses – we’re talking about more than 20,000 euros per season. “It was no longer reasonable for all parties that Mr. Montavon should run the theater like this,” explains SPD city councilor Stefan Schade to MDR KULTUR. “What happened in the media and under his leadership – no one could say that it could continue like this.”
criticism from all Erfurt city council factions
Meanwhile, the AfD faction had even filed a criminal complaint against the Erfurt theater director. According to Stefan Möller, people are dissatisfied with the way the information has been provided so far.
The Value Added City parliamentary group also expressed dissatisfaction – among other things because a critical statement from Sebastian Perdelwitz could no longer be found in the recording after a city council meeting. The city administration said the cause was technical reasons.
“We don’t have any official information about whether things will continue, whether there are any discussions at all,” regrets Niklas Waßmann (CDU). He complains that the main thing that people want to question is why there are supposedly no cost centers in the theater’s account management. So It is not possible to specifically understand which costs were incurred for which production.
Even though the factory management, the theater’s control committee, has now been replaced, questions still remain unanswered. The left-wing faction put it this way in an interview on MDR KULTUR: “This hesitancy on the part of the city administration always annoys me a bit because the current plant management has said very clearly in public: ‘The financial hole is really big and we have to make an effort to address it too to be held responsible and to warn.’ That is also a consequence,” says city councilor Katja Maurer.
Clear consequences required
The Alliance 90/The Greens faction in the Erfurt city council is also rather dissatisfied with the state of things. Laura Wahl told MDR KULTUR: “The blatant grievance remains. While the mayor wanted to negotiate a severance agreement with the general manager, Ms. Witzmann was terminated without notice. We demand that she can return to the position of equal opportunities officer and be rehabilitated.”
The city councilor and member of the state parliament also demands that the passage on the rights of equal opportunities officers be amended as part of an amendment to the Thuringian Equal Opportunities Act. This ensures that they can and should act in the interests of those affected in the event of suspected discrimination.
For some, the additional question arises as to whether all the documents that serve to provide information are actually available. “If it really is the case that relevant documents and files can no longer be found, that would be a violation of proper accounting,” complains Laura Wahl. “We expect that the mayor – if this proves to be the case – will issue a warning against the general manager and also check whether this could be a reason for immediate dismissal.”
Source: MDR KULTUR (Blanka Weber)
Editing: tsa, bh