Friday, October 6, 2017

Black Book Talk

Every year, there is a publication brought out called the 'Schwarzbuch' (the Black Book).  It's a listing by financial experts over the waste of money by the German government.

I noticed HR (regional Hessen public TV) had a report on this....talking to the top ten wastes of money within Hessen from the new publication.

There were two stadium building/renovation projects in the Frankfurt region....for minor-league soccer.  In both cases, the regional government spent a fair amount of money to make 'high-end' type stadiums for minor-league clubs (FSV Frankfurt and Kickers Offenbach).  As the financial experts state....both could have been done for much less.

In another case, the Oberusel area had this 400-year-old tree standing.  The local government paid in the area of 77k Euro to make a art project to recognize the tree.  The tree itself?  Dying mostly because of it's location being near an autobahn.

Then they brought this renovation project in Frankfurt's old-city area.  They drafted up a plan in 2012 to renovate a fairly old building.  Cost?  Originally 18.4 million Euro.  Well....the Black Book crowd points out that they never had any real purpose or use written into the building.  Right now, they are using it as a church museum.  Also, they've spent an extra six million Euro, and there's commentary that more will be spent on the building.

You will probably hear more about the Black Book over the next week or two. 

No comments: