As we reported last week, the new capital airport “Willy Brandt International” in Berlin, Germany, is an ongoing boondoggle—a national and international embarrassment of cost overruns and delayed completion. The General Accounting Office (GA) of the State of Brandenburg published a damning report decrying the shortcomings surrounding construction of the airport-to-be and accusing both the supervisory board and the senior management for neglect of their legal obligations.
      Recently, the well-respected German daily Tagesspiegel questioned whether the hope for a BER opening—now set for late 2017—is even feasible.
      The new “hitch in the giddy-up“ for getting things completed at BER are the authorities once again refusing to sign off on the fire protection code at the airport.
      For the record, getting clearance for fire safety at BER has been nixed and altered and nixed multiple times already, and if recent word is to be believed it is no closer to a solution at the present moment.
       An airport spokesman sounded hopeful that “the technical team is confident they can align the state of the technical drawing to the progress already made in construction.”
      Speaking to the press, BER CEO Karsten Muehlenfeld stressed that he thinks these issues would not prevent an orderly opening of BER in the second half of 2017.
      Whether these are just more empty words and assurances after years of the same old song is yet to be determined.

Running For Cover

      In the meantime, the majority of politicians in the Brandenburg State Parliament (to no one’s surprise) decided to block any proceedings based on neglect of duty against current and former member of the BER management and supervisory boards, as recommended by the GA’s office.
      The majority of Social Democrats (SPD) and Linke (the former socialist party ruling communist Eastern Germany until 1989) blocked attempts by the minority of conservatives (CDU) and Gruene (Environmental Protectionist Party) to institute the proceedings recommended by the GA.
      SPD-MP Klara Geywitz outlined that “the responsibilities for these shortcomings are pretty hard to determine, as even the Berlin state court had not seen any serious neglect of duty on the side of former airport CEO Rainer Schwarz.”
      Linke-MP Stefan Ludwig added that “the responsibility of the board members had been examined by legal experts in a most encompassing manner and that there was no need to repeat such an undertaking.”
      Brandenburg State Secretary for Finance, Christian Goerke (Linke) concluded “he had shared the GA’s report with the other shareholders, the City of Berlin, and the Federal Republic of Germany and there was agreement that any further liability assessment in regard to the conduct of former and present management and board members was both unwarranted and unnecessary.”
      So while there apparently may not be a finished airport in sight for Berlin, as it stands right now there is also no one to blame for it.
      The old political two-step of one step forward, two steps back, which has lived as the rippling rhythm of political life from Washington to Timbuktu, is alive and well in Berlin, as taxpayer money pays the piper, keeping the dance of these dummkofs in motion.
Geoffrey