Eindhoven Municipal Real Estate Department is in chaos. The Municipality has no overview of how many buildings they own, how much they are worth and what the level of maintenance of the buildings is.
This is the tough conclusion of the Municipal Audit Office, after half a year of investigation. Due to the lack of information, the Eindhoven political parties and the City Council are unable to make good decisions. According to the Municipal Audit Office a lot of unnecessary tax money is also lost. This could be up to millions of euros. The cause of the losses are, amongst other things, due to overdue collection of fees and huge rental costs for empty buildings.
According to Municipal Auditor’s office President Harry Janssen, the average resident will also notice the consequences of the mess. If the Real Estate Department loses money unnecessarily, the Municipality will need to make cut backs in other areas in the city.
The Municipal Audit Office holds Alderman Schreurs and the heads of the Real Estate Department responsible. Janssen says that they should be held accountable for the “miraculous disappearance”of information about buildings in the city..
The Municipal Audit Office noted that the Municipality owns over 420 buildings. a value of some 420 million euro. These include schools, community centres, gyms, civil servants’ housing and cultural buildings such as the Park Theater, the Effenaar and the Muziekgebouw.
The Municipal Audit Office advises the City Council on policy and current issues.
