To which 100,000 companies did the 17 billion Swiss francs for coping with the pandemic go?
The State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco) has stubbornly refused to release data about the corona loans. Seco director Marie-Gabrielle Ineichen-Fleisch and her team have received a request from the environmental organization Greenpeace.
“Because the authority has not been ready to make information available even in pseudo-anonymized form, much about the historic credit program remains in the dark,” the investigativ.ch association wrote on Friday. For this reason, the “Golden Brake Block” award goes to the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs in Bern.
According to the journalists’ association, the officials refused, despite a clear recommendation from the federal public relations officer, to create transparency in the corona loan program.
The environmental protection organization wanted to know whether these gigantic sums are also flowing to industries that are harmful to the climate. And therefore demanded access to the data on the corona loans. The Seco stonewalled: It doesn’t have this data. According to the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, these data are administered by the guarantee organizations and are not subject to the Public Information Act.
The Seco wrote this in a statement to investigativ.ch. But even if the Seco had it, it shouldn’t have issued it, the Seco claimed to investigativ.ch. Company secrets are affected. In addition, the office refuses to accept the abusive price.
The other “candidates” on the list for the “Golden Brake Block” also come from the Corona environment. Among other things, the publicity lover Daniel Kochwho, as “Mister Corona”, systematically downplayed the benefits of face masks in the initial phase of the pandemic.
But the Federal Office of Public Health (BAG) didn’t cover itself with fame either. According to investigativ.ch, the office is “unable to provide numbers on the pandemic quickly and reliably”.
And the customs administration also made it onto the shortlist for the disgraceful price because they kept silent about their bus practices during the corona pandemic.
The awarding of the Golden Brake Pad took place as part of a digital annual conference. “Research – now all the more” was the motto.
–
