In order to save millions, the WKÖ is now spending 675,000 euros

The Chamber of Commerce (WKÖ) wants to save millions. In this context, Neo-boss Martha Schultz has announced, among other things, an external audit, the results of which should be available in June. And this investigation into processes in the executive floor and in departments, which was commissioned at the start of the year by the consultant KPMG, was estimated by the WKÖ at around 675,000 euros net, writes The press. This amount was confirmed to the APA.

Pending the outcome of the audit, the increases in functional compensation at top level, which were sometimes criticized as exorbitant and which had led, among other things, to Harald Mahrer’s resignation as WKÖ boss, were suspended. It was only at the end of January that the chamber announced that it wanted to save 4.2 million euros this year in order to reduce the estimated budget deficit of this amount to a black zero in 2026.

According to the newspaper report, this week’s savings included the fact that the WKÖ this year – in contrast to last time under Mahrer – foregone a box at the Vienna Opera Ball, as did high-ranking officials forego participation. Mahrer had joked at the time that “only mineral water” was drunk in the lodge. A box with guest cards and entertainment costs tens of thousands of euros. Schultz also succeeded Mahrer as head of the ÖVP economic association.

Criticism of the consulting costs came from the FPÖ. In a broadcast, its general secretary Michael Schnedlitz repeated the call for an “immediate abolition of compulsory membership in the Chamber of Commerce”. For the Secretary General of the Freedom Economy, Reinhard Langthaler, the WKÖ must become “a real, voluntary representation of the interests of our companies”.