Ten smaller kindergarten companies in Vienna are to be checked by the City Audit Office. According to the VP, “Minibambini” was not an isolated case…
“The funding scandal surrounding the ‘Minibambini’ club is apparently just the tip of the iceberg,” says VP chairman Karl Mahrer. “The failure of control has a system.” The VP now submitted an audit request to the City Audit Office in Vienna – the “Family Business” of ten smaller kindergarten operators in several districts is to be checked.
The characteristics are the same everywhere: fake children for whom funding is obtained, cash payments, abuse of funding in payroll accounting and “in-itself business”. In addition: “A kindergarten can be opened as easily as a kebab shop,” says Mahrer.
“No one speaks German”
A kindergarten teacher who worked for several suspicious operators reported on her experiences during the VP media interview. Some kindergartens are said to be run by foreign clans. These would employ family members and compatriots and attract parents from the same country of origin. The result: “No one speaks German anymore.” The list of grievances in some kindergartens is long, according to the teacher, who wants to remain anonymous, at the VP headquarters in downtown Vienna.
Magic pen in attendance list
The operators would brag about having “contacts with the magistrate”. “There are children’s lists for which we have to use erasable pens. Kids are often absent for a month, but still appear in the attendance list.” Everything would have to be paid for in cash. Kindergarten teachers would have to continue their education in their free time at their own expense. Smoking is smoked in the kindergartens, the smoke also moves into the kindergarten groups.
Single black sheep
“That reflects the conditions of some kindergarten operators,” says Mahrer. “The children and the parents are the victims, in the end it’s always the taxpayer who pays.” There would be no suspected cases with large private operators. Most would act correctly. “Kindergartens must not become self-service shops for dubious family clans,” said VP education spokesman Harald Zierfuss.
Deputy Mayor Christoph Wiederkehr has already announced an “action sharp” against suspicious kindergarten operators and against the abuse of subsidies. The “Minibambini” association has to pay back any subsidies that have been paid out.
