Waste incineration plant: auditors make devastating verdict
Auditors have identified those responsible for the construction and financial disaster Hamburg The new waste incineration plant at Volkspark (ZRE) issued a damning report. “As a result of the existing deficiencies in project planning and monitoring as well as in risk management with regard to the construction of the ZRE (…), the committees were not adequately and promptly informed about the expected cost increases in the construction of the ZRE and about delays in its completion,” says the report by the auditing firm Deloitte.
Cost explosion from 234 million to up to 780 million euros
The Center for Resources and Energy (ZRE) has been under construction since April 2023 and was originally scheduled to be completed in 2025. But that couldn’t be maintained. The initially calculated costs of around 234 million euros rose to 534 million euros, and the completion date moved to 2026/2027. At the end of April, however, it turned out that everything was much worse. According to the management report approved by the city cleaning supervisory board on Wednesday, costs of between 720 and 780 million euros are now expected. Further delays lasting years are considered certain.
“I don’t want to beat around it: what the auditors confirmed to us on the Supervisory Board yesterday annoys me to no end,” said the Chairwoman of the Supervisory Board and Hamburg Environment Senator Katharina Fegebank (Greens) on Thursday. The Supervisory Board was withheld essential information about ZRE costs and deadlines for a long time until the end of last year. This is a clear breach of trust. “Despite repeated, clear inquiries and an additional order for even closer control of major projects, we were not given a realistic picture.”
Legal action against management is being examined
At a special meeting in mid-June, the supervisory board decided to examine legal action against the management responsible at the time. Specifically, it is also about the long-time managing director Rüdiger Siechau. He was at the head of Hamburg City Cleaning (SRH) for three decades and retired at the end of last year.
Fegebank said that the supervisory board had now initially approved a sum of 97 million euros to continue the project. “This is deliberately a limited tranche. Every additional euro is carefully examined.” In addition, new external monitoring should be introduced. “We are tightening the reins here,” emphasized the senator. The ZRE is considered an important component of Hamburg’s heating and energy transition. In the future, the system will deliver up to 75 megawatts of district heating output in winter and up to 22 megawatts of electricity in summer – when there is less demand for heat.
CDU opposition calls for liability check against supervisory board
The CDU opposition demanded that not only the former management, but also the supervisory board and its chairman Fegebank be examined. “I call on Finance Senator Andreas Dressel to immediately initiate an independent liability check against the members of the supervisory board, in particular against the chairman of the supervisory board Katharina Fegebank,” said CDU environmental expert Sandro Kappe. If it turns out that control or monitoring obligations have been violated and the city has suffered damage, possible claims for compensation must be rigorously examined.
The coalition factions of the SPD and the Greens, on the other hand, were satisfied with Fegebank’s approach. The fact that the Hamburg citizens can now view and evaluate all relevant files is the right way, said SPD environmental expert Alexander Mohrenberg. The Green Party parliamentary group vice-president Rosa Domm said: “It is good that the current Environment Senator and the new management of the city cleaning department are actively leading the way in clarifying past misconduct.”
More projects got out of hand
The waste incineration plant at Volkspark is not the only project that got out of hand under the environmental authority’s jurisdiction. The costs of the Vera II sewage sludge incineration plant in the port rose from the original 196 million to 297.2 million euros. Including two parallel projects, the budget is even 325 million euros. As a result, the top management at the time was replaced. The plant is intended to be the largest sewage sludge incineration plant in Germany. Together with Vera I, up to 97,000 tons of sewage sludge will be processed there per year from 2029 at the latest.
“Large projects are becoming massively more expensive throughout Germany and not just since yesterday,” said Fegebank. There is unprecedented price dynamics in the construction sector. Hamburg has no influence on the development of global prices. “No control body in the world can isolate itself from global market prices – this explicitly applies to all major projects, not just those that are currently being implemented here in the city,” said the senator.
© dpa-infocom, dpa:260709-930-358935/2