LET’S BUILD BETTER!
Why the government must finally take responsibility for construction
When I look out my office window, I don’t see a green idyll – but a permanent government construction site. The Federal Environment Agency building in Berlin-Grunewald has been undergoing renovation for six, maybe seven years. The original plan was to spend €72 million on approximately 14,000 square meters of usable space. It’s now clear: This remains wishful thinking.
Bankruptcies of planning firms, construction companies dropping out, pollutants, and technical problems mid-construction – all of this has led to the project dragging on indefinitely. My inquiry as to whether alternatives to the costly renovation of the listed building had been explored beforehand has remained unanswered. Instead, the taxpayer is now not only paying for the construction site, but also around €300,000 a month for temporary accommodation in Berlin-Tegel, a large portion of which is unlikely to be used due to remote working.
This project is not an unfortunate isolated incident – it is an expression of a systemic failure. Just remember the construction of Berlin’s BER airport: a political demonstration of power, born of the arrogance and overconfidence of the political leadership, professional incompetence, and the convenient fact that it wasn’t about their own money. The airport company, with its owners Berlin, Brandenburg, and the federal government, became the prey of planners and numerous construction companies. In the end, this major scandal cost taxpayers billions of euros – and put Germany in the headlines around the world.
The Ministry of Economics also succeeded in doing this last year: 600 million euros in state funding for a battery factory was paid to the ailing company Northvolt, which is now insolvent. In the private sector, this would have brought anyone to grief, including criminal proceedings for breach of trust on a massive scale. However, the former Minister of Economics will moderate a series of discussions at the Berliner Ensemble theater starting in the fall and promises “long, in-depth, and calm discussions.”
The state and administration have a responsibility – not just politically, but very concretely towards those who pay for these projects: the citizens. Where the state implements construction projects in the future, it should do so after a tender process with a capable general contractor who factors in all risks and guarantees a precise completion date and a fixed price. As with the construction of a cruise ship: There are no cheapskates involved, but every day of missed deadlines costs high contractual penalties. And: Anyone who grossly negligently or even intentionally wastes public funds must be held accountable.
In the private sector, construction is usually more successful through individual contracts, both with general contractors and contractors, because competence, experience, and, above all, personal responsibility count. But the state too often loses its way: a high degree of vanity and overconfidence clashes with a confusing array of responsibilities, naivety, and a shocking lack of competence and control.
It’s time for this to change. Anyone who uses public funds does not do so from an ivory tower and must be measured by private-sector standards.
If we can once again speak about taxpayers’ money with the same respect we treat our own, then public construction projects will once again become successes – and not permanent construction sites that we look at with a shake of the head.
In this spirit
Ernst-M. Ehrenkönig
CEO & Managing Partner