It's a short piece over at Focus (the German news magazine) but they attached one other little curious problem with the scandal development with BamF (the immigration agency for the German government) and the folks who work for them up in Bremen.
The issue? Well....there's a very untidy and unexplained use of 8.5 million Euro (roughly 10 million dollars) by the Bremen BamF chief over a fairly short period of time (in less than a year).
Typically, like most US departments....you'd have a bill or receipt to come in....noting that such-and-such order had been fulfilled (a pallet of toilet paper, or six hours of landscaping, or a window replaced). The budget officer would be allowed on their own to file the document, and pay the bill. Once you reach X-level....then the chief would have to review the document, and be the one responsible for paying the bill.
So there's 8.5 million Euro that went out, and no real details on hours or service. What they are admitting....is that it's involving legal services of lawyer shop.
As you read through the piece....it's clear...no one knows much of anything. There is the hint that maybe the chief pocketed some of the money, but there's no substance to suggest that.
What is odd here, as you go and read over the piece....there's a very clear attitude shift now to wrap this up by the opposition parties, and move on. Other than the AfD (the anti-migrant political party)....most of the others are prepared to dismantle the inquiry talk. Why? I suspect that they've asked their polling folks and discovered that the more you talk about this as a scandal....the more anti-immigrant you make the general public. Lack of trust means you can't handle the immigration or migration business, and that's generally a bad thing for the opposition parties to admit.
As for the 8.5 million Euro? Go out and contract one-hundred man-hours of legal work for some cause or reason. If this involved just some junior staff members....you might save a bit. If you involved eight man-hours of this with a PhD level lawyer....the cost factor goes up rapidly. I could see a dozen contracts like this existing, and each one involving half-a-million Euro very easily.
Scandal-wise, again.....there's just not enough 'smoke' to say anything real illegal ever occurred. This may all wrap up by December and other than a hyped-up episode in the news.....nothing ever occurred to fire or dismiss anyone.
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