Not only the way the state government deals with taxpayers' money, but also some of the processes controlled by the ministries have drawn firm criticism from the Court of Auditors.

On Thursday, for example, its President Walter Wallmann criticized food monitoring.

It has been transferred to the 26 municipal veterinary offices.

However, the Ministry of the Environment must ensure that state tasks such as operational controls and the taking of samples are actually carried out.

The audit of the years 2016 to 2018 by the Court of Auditors showed "that the veterinary offices only insufficiently fulfilled the requirements for food monitoring".

Only 37,500 of the 50,900 company controls prescribed for 2018 were carried out.

On average, every fourth check failed, according to Wallmann.

In one office, the fulfillment rate was only 17 percent.

A printed matter from the state parliament shows that in this extreme case it is the Odenwald district.

Ewald Hetrodt

Correspondent for the Rhein-Main-Zeitung in Wiesbaden.

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According to the findings of the Court of Auditors, a similar picture emerges for the food samples requested by the Hessian state laboratory: Of the 20,700 samples requested, the authorities only supplied the state laboratory with 13,800.

The Court of Auditors is not satisfied with the reforms announced by Environment Minister Priska Hinz (Die Grünen) after the scandal surrounding the products of the North Hessian company Wilke.

He recommends clarifying the causes of the monitoring deficits and working with the veterinary authorities to ensure uniform controls.

Too few dormitories for students

As long as the legally prescribed planned controls cannot be carried out completely, higher-risk companies should be monitored with priority.

The authority suggests that taking the samples be made the task of the state laboratory in the medium term.

It means efficient centralization if the taking and the examination of the samples are in one hand.

In addition, the municipal authorities would be relieved by the state.

You would have more time for operational checks.

They could then take place more frequently and be carried out more carefully.

"The state and municipalities are called upon to improve monitoring," said Wallmann.

To this end, a joint discussion between all the actors involved and the experts from the Court of Auditors has been agreed for this month.

They also examined the five Hessian student unions and found that their reserves had increased from 74.5 million to 112.2 million euros between 2015 and 2019.

Some of them had liquid funds of more than 29 million euros, so that negative interest would have to be paid to the financial institutions.

Only the student union in Kassel was able to submit plans for the use of the reserves.

Wallmann recommended this to all student unions in order "to prove the adequacy of the reserves".

Where there are no concrete projects, the Ministry of Science will have to cut the budget in the future.

According to the requirements of the state government, ten percent of the students should be accommodated in halls of residence.

In fact, according to the findings of the Court of Auditors, the average rate in the 2019/20 winter semester was only 5.4 percent.

Demand is significantly higher than supply.

Shortcomings in eJustice program 'unacceptable'

Wallmann demanded that the student unions should continue to make efforts to at least meet the quota of subsidized dormitories specified by the state government.

"Of course, reserves are necessary for this, but it must not lead to infinite reserves being created without concrete use planning." There are also potential savings when processing applications for student loans.

Based on external studies, up to 20 jobs could be lost.

This corresponds to savings of 1.6 million euros per year.

The Court of Auditors mainly accuses the Ministry of Justice of “deficiencies in the planning and project management” of digitization.

Wallmann recalled that the federal guidelines provide for the mandatory introduction of electronic legal transactions from 2018 and e-files by the end of 2026.

"In the Hessian judiciary, however, the introduction of this eJustice program is far off plan due to planning and project deficiencies in terms of time and costs." The duration of the project has increased from six years to eleven years.

The planned costs increased by 354 percent from 37 million euros in 2015 to 168 million euros in 2019.

"That's not acceptable," said Wallmann.

Written pleadings, applications and statements by lawyers could be submitted to the courts as electronic documents.

But there they would have to be printed out in order to be able to process them in the legally binding paper file.

This leads to unnecessary and expensive media breaks, resulting in longer processing times.

"Enormous potential could be leveraged here through stringent digitization," said the President of the Court of Auditors.

If the e-file is used, at least half a million briefs per year no longer have to be printed out.