Burgenland to rule on housing commissioner’s future

Burgenland’s supervisory authority will decide this week whether government commissioner Mathias Burger remains at the non-profit housing company Neue Eisenstädter, ORF reports. The state appointed him a year ago to oversee the company’s business after a special audit.

The decision will be issued by the supervisory authority in the state government office, group head Brigitte Novosel told ORF Burgenland. The tax office, Neue Eisenstädter and the Association of Non-Profit Building Associations and Auditing Association can submit their views.

Neue Eisenstädter and the association challenged Burger’s appointment at the Regional Administrative Court last year. A ruling is still pending.

Burger was appointed for a one-year term last October, following an audit that found excessive interest rates on loans from the company’s owner banks and the prohibited sale of investor apartments. Raiffeisenlandesbank, Erste Bank and Neue Eisenstädter disputed the findings.

A state parliament inquiry committee followed. The state supervisory authority viewed the committee’s final report positively and considered the commissioner’s work justified. The opposition criticised the report.

The state’s majority takeover of Neue Eisenstädter has still not been entered in the commercial register. Johannes Zink, a lawyer for the state, expects the entry before the end of the year.