Köpping: no corruption affair in the Ministry of Social Affairs

Saxon Social Affairs Minister Petra Köpping (SPD) has once again rejected accusations in connection with her ministry's funding practices. "There was and is no corruption affair in the Ministry of Social Affairs. But there was incorrect administrative action," she said in the state parliament on Wednesday. Former State Secretary Sebastian Vogel had taken responsibility for this. "We have drawn the consequences and completely restructured the funding procedure." Mistakes had been admitted and corrected. Vogel was retired after the allegations came to light.

The Saxon Court of Audit had criticized the implementation of a funding guideline for the integration of refugees in a special report the previous week and attested that the ministry had acted unlawfully to an "extraordinary extent". No evidence of personal misconduct on Köpping's part was found. However, almost every one of the more than 100 case files examined was found to have significant shortcomings. The audit focused on funding from 2016 to 2019.

The AfD used the ACA report as an opportunity for a further debate on the case in the state parliament. According to AfD MP André Barth, there is a suspicion of political influence in the Ministry of Social Affairs. Representatives of other parties accused the AfD of scandalization. Köpping advised everyone to form their own opinion. "The Court of Audit's report is public." The authority makes a very clear distinction between administrative procedural errors in the implementation of the directive and procedurally extraneous influences. The errors had been acknowledged and corrected.