“This is a major transparency offensive in Vienna,” said Deputy Mayor Christoph Wiederkehr proud. He, who is also the City Councillor for Transparency, is referring to the creation of the new Vienna Public Corporate Governance Code (WPCGK).
The presentation in the Volkshalle of Vienna City Hall was also attended by City Councillor for Finance and Economic Affairs Peter HankeFinance Director Christoph Maschek and Susanne Kalssuniversity professor for corporate law at the Vienna University of Economics and Business, was present. “For the first time, there is now a code for municipal investment companies, which will change many things and lead to a new level,” Wiederkehr also said.
120 new regulations
There are numerous companies in which the City of Vienna has a stake. These include Wien Energie, Wiener Linien and the Vienna Festival. As the owner, the City is committed to the principles of good Corporate Governance (note: order). There are now modernized and transparent guidelines for these through the newly introduced code.
It includes 120 regulations, 89 of which are mandatory and the rest are recommendations. From now on, for example, there is a engagement to prepare an annual corporate governance report. In companies in which the City of Vienna only has a minority share, the City and the bodies it delegates must work as hard as possible to ensure that the code is implemented.
Cooling-Off-Phasen
The code regulates, for example, the Composition of the Supervisory Board and Management and establish responsible, stable and transparent decision-making processes. It also aims to clearly demarcate the tasks and responsibilities between the owner, the City of Vienna, on the one hand, and the individual corporate holdings on the other.
The Appointment process for supervisory boards was reformed. “The cooling-off phases in the event of incompatibility and the strict handling of conflicts of interest are an important step,” said Wiederkehr. In future, 12 months will have to pass before a person from the management can move to the supervisory board.
Implementation step by step 2025
Hanke spoke of a milestone and emphasized that he comes from both worlds. He worked operationally at Wien Holding for 25 years and now he has political responsibility. “More than 140 companies are subject to the new regulations. Binding quotas for women and maximum age limits on supervisory boards are an expression of a participation policy that recognizes the signs of the times.”
The WPCGK is to be launched in 2025 implemented step by step “so that it can take full effect in 2026,” said Finance Director Christoph Maschek. “From then on, the first corporate governance reports will be published together with the respective annual financial statements for 2025,” he added. The bundled information also involves accountability to the public and taxpayers and tax payments, explained Susanne Kalss.
Progressive coalition and financial scandal
In order to establish a competent authority for the management and supervision of the municipal enterprises, uniform regulatory framework In order to create a public corporate governance code, the “Progressive Coalition” agreed in its government program to create its own WPCGK, said Wiederkehr. The Viennese ÖVP said in a recent press release: “The establishment of a Viennese Public Corporate Governance Code was announced years ago, but never implemented. The fact that this is now apparently becoming a reality is due to the tireless investigative work of the Viennese People’s Party and the findings of the investigation commission into the SPÖ financial scandal,” said the Viennese People’s Party’s parliamentary group leader. Markus Woelbitsch and continued: “We will now, of course, examine this thoroughly to see whether it meets the necessary strict requirements.”
The SPÖ financial scandal in the Vienna Energy case would have had numerous Deficiencies in the area of investment management and the appointment of the supervisory board members. “This was subsequently confirmed by the Court of Auditors. The City of Vienna’s investment management limited itself to adopting information and key figures from Wiener Stadtwerke without conducting its own assessments and analyses. And the City of Vienna’s selection process for nominating representatives to the supervisory board of Wien Energie was not based on comprehensible technical criteria within the framework of a transparent process,” the press release continues.
Hanke: “Of course, the Vienna Energy case played a role here, resulting in Learning effectsBut we already agreed that transparency is important. Vienna is the most transparent municipality in Austria. And not because we say so ourselves, but because others say so about us.”
The entire WPCGK will be available to everyone on the website of the Financial Administration of the City of Vienna.
(kurier.at, is)
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12.09.2024, 13:22
