Throwing Money Away

Every year, there is this book printed in Germany called the 'Black Book'.  Produced by the Taxpayer Association, it will lay out the details of about a hundred cases of fraud or public waste of taxpayer money.

So this got brought up by SWR.....seven episodes in the Rhineland Pfalz region of Germany (southwest).

The item that interested me concerned was a St Goar project.

For those of you unfamiliar with St Goar.....it's a Rhine River town about 30 minutes west of Wiesbaden on the Pfalz side of the river.  If you've done the Rhine River cruises....you've probably gotten off there and sipped a bit of wine or ate lunch.  It's actually one of the twenty places in Germany that I'd recommend if you were touring the country.

So out of the Black Book....they came to note that the city authorities got ahold of 408,000 Euro (roughly 480,000 US dollars) to start this project.    What they decided to do with the money?  They wanted to build a platform on the bank of the river.  The fact that the entire town is on the river and more than a mile exists of public viewing area....giving you a 180-degree view?

Well....that's the curious thing.

They decided to go and build a ship-like front platform on the riverbank.  My description of it: putting a v-like steel structure up....going about twenty feet out onto the water, so you have still 200-degree view of the water....meaning the ten feet of water on each side as an 'extra thrilling' view.

But here's this special thought....that 408k Euro only got you to stage one. To complete the project (it's apparently not done yet), and to ensure it's safe....they figure there's roughly two-million additional Euro on the bill.

You can imagine yourself running some town government, with a great view of the river, and having deciding upon platform that gives you the same view, but for roughly three-million US dollars.  People being held responsible?  No.

If you went to folks around town, my guess is that most would have suggested city park upgrades, paving of some streets, or maybe some sports-related upgrades....for the town of 3,000 residents.

If you had further interest in the Black Book?  You can observe some of these criticisms, or even order the book at this site.

One of my favorites from the book is the Hanover area effort to go and request funding to have a Wolf-ambulance.  Yes.....11,000 Euro was 'grabbed' for a government project to have an ambulance vehicle.....just for wolves.  The curious thing about this story, if you went out and noted wolf regions of Germany....this is not even in the top ten areas for a wolf population.  Yes, there have been sightings, but it's a very urbanized region.  How many times has the wolf ambulance been called out?  Unknown.