ACA presents four reports

Today, the Austrian Court of Audit (ACA) published the following reports: 

• Federal Office for Immigration and Asylum
  
• Hospital of Oberwart – Planning, Refurbishment and Construction
• Internal Control System in the Debt and Investment Management of the Province of Tyrol 
  
• Disaster Relief; Follow–up Audit
  

Federal Office for Immigration and Asylum

Since 2014, the Federal Office for Immigration and Asylum (BFA) has been the first-instance authority with regard to asylum proceedings. Furthermore, the authority is also competent in cases related to immigration, the right of residence in noteworthy circumstances and the Federal Basic Welfare Support Act (Grundversorgungsgesetz-Bund). Owing to international and national developments, the workload of the office was difficult to forecast. The ACA found that the development of the number of staff was traceable and that the BFA had reacted to the changing framework conditions in a timely manner. However, a uniform level and standard of training for the officers in charge of the proceedings was lacking.

No uniform quality of decisions

Although team leaders and officers in charge of the proceedings had to have successfully passed a secondary school-leaving examination (Reifeprüfung) or a secondary school leaving examination for working people (Berufsreifeprüfung) and go through a psychological test, they did not hold a university degree (in law). Only from March 2016 on did the BFA have a structured one-month training, which was completed by 54 officials. In April 2016, the BFA introduced a four-month basic training. By March 2018, this course had been completed by 235 officials. Due to the lacking legal prior knowledge of the officers in charge of the proceedings, the broad scope of tasks and possible infringements of fundamental rights, a uniform quality of decisions (e.g. with regard to the reasons in official decisions on asylum applications was not ensured sufficiently.

Management of staff was hardly possible due to fluctuating staff requirements

When the BFA was established, it had 505 staff members. Four years later, as of 1 January 2018, its staff counted 1,339 members, which equalled an increase of some 165 per cent. Since its foundation, the staff-related expenditure has increased by some 112 per cent and totalled some EUR 61 million in 2017. Overall, the BFA had only few possibilities to manage the staff due to fluctuating staff requirements. The possibility to shift staff members within the ministry was, according to the ACA’s opinion, insufficient. In fact, the BFA was confronted with 28,064 and asylum applications in 2014; in 2015 the asylum applications accounted for 88,340. In 2016 and 2017, the number of asylum applications decreased to 42,285 and 24,735 respectively. Originally, the BFA was created for the processing of about 15,750 asylum decisions. The office was headquartered in Vienna; each province had a regional directorate; in addition to that, initial reception centres and branch offices had been established. As of May 2018, the BFA had 25 entities.

The number of pending asylum proceedings at the BFA is decreasing – pending asylum proceedings at the Federal Administrative Court are increasing

The ACA noted that the BFA could decrease the number of the pending first-instance asylum proceedings (incl. the period of appeal) from more than 73,000 in end-2015 to some 16,000 in end-June 2018. With this, it clearly fell below the number of pending cases prior to the refugee crisis in 2015/2016. In the same period, the number of pending asylum proceedings at the Federal Administrative Court increased from some 6,300 to over 30,000 and surpassed the number of pending first-instance proceedings. The ACA concluded that the decisions of the Federal Administrative Court had a direct impact on the workload of the BFA (e.g. referrals back, removal from the country).

Information gaps with regard to alien offenders

The prisons had to inform the BFA, as soon as possible, on aliens who reported to serve a penalty or who were released. In general, the security authorities as well as the public prosecution offices and the prisons informed the BFA on offences of aliens in a reliable and timely manner. The ACA, however, criticized that the Vienna-Josefstadt prison failed to consistently inform the competent regional directorate prior to off-the-cuff prison releases of aliens. The ACA therefore recommended to ensure that all prisons consistently inform the competent regional directorates of the BFA prior to off-the-cuff prisons releases of aliens. In 2018 the competent ministry took additional measures in the area of alien offenders and delinquent asylum seekers. The ACA recommended to evaluate such measures in a timely manner and to make adjustments in accordance with national and international standards.