What the members of the Federal Government earn is regulated in the Federal Ministers Act, the salaries of federal judges can be found in the Federal Salaries Act. This transparency does not exist with the top executives of ARD and ZDF. Since the scandal surrounding the RBB director Patricia Schlesinger, who was fired without notice, there have been considerations about disclosing salaries more than before. The contribution service, on the other hand, remains closed.
The “service” costs 173 million euros
Of the 8.42 billion euros that public broadcasting received from fees in 2021, more than two percent were used for the successor organization to the GEZ. The contribution service costs the contributor almost 173 million. How much of it goes into the pockets of the managing director or the other members of the management board was not to be communicated to the FAZ, even after repeated requests.
The pure personnel expenses are estimated in the balance sheet at more than 64 million euros, compared to 945 employees. This results in costs of more than 68,000 euros per employee. Since clerks or trainees are not likely to earn as much, a spread in salaries can be assumed.
The ZDF has now taken a request from the FAZ as an opportunity to “contact” the contribution service and then announced that the remuneration of the managing director would “be published for the first time as part of the 2022 annual report”. When will that be? The 2021 report was presented in June this year. The announcement that has now been announced is therefore not expected until mid-2023. A reason for this delay is not apparent and will hardly be politically sustainable.
“The proposal to voluntarily disclose his remuneration in the future was made by Managing Director Michael Krüßel himself at the last meeting of the Contribution Service’s Board of Directors,” explains ZDF. This meeting took place on August 24, two days after this newspaper’s first request. The broadcaster does not speak of the salaries of the other members of the management, so these could remain secret.
In addition to the above-mentioned personnel expenses of EUR 64 million, there are also around EUR 12 million in employer contributions to social security and around EUR 11.5 million for company pension payments to pensioners. A further 7.6 million will be paid by the contribution service to the Baden-Baden pension fund for future pensions for those currently employed. Life is good with the contribution service, even if there are no bonuses – unlike the RBB up to now. After all, the managing director is allowed to use his company car, a Ford Mondeo, for private purposes. When asked by the FAZ, it also says: “The front seats of the car have a massage function.”
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