Massage seat is a secret - confidentiality clauses apply to the ministers' official cars

They are important advertising media for the three major German manufacturers of luxury cars: the Federal Chancellor and the ministers of the federal government. One or more of the Audi, BMW or Mercedes limousines can be seen on the TV news almost every day – while a member of the federal government is getting in or out of the vehicle.

But how much do the manufacturers charge for this marketing measure?

Neither they nor most ministries want to reveal that. Is it almost 70 percent, as with the official discount for the Audi limousine of the previous RBB director Patricia Schlesinger? In view of the debate about the sacked journalist and her rolling massage seat, WELT asked the federal ministries and the car manufacturers. The reactions were mostly tight-lipped.

For example with Hubertus Heil, the labor minister. The SPD politician uses two personal company cars, previously an Audi A8 and a BMW 745LE. These days he got two successor sedans, both large plug-in bodies of the Mercedes S580 type. According to the list, their unit price is at least 132,780 euros. However, the ministry is not allowed to pay more than 75,000 euros for a purchase; so says the upper limit set by the Treasury Department. So did the Stuttgart manufacturer grant a discount of at least 43 percent?

That's unclear, because the ministry didn't buy the cars, they leased them - and there are no clear upper limits. It is also unclear which special equipment Mercedes has supplied. Did Minister Heil also get massage seats? His ministry does not want to reveal that. Just like the discount, the question of special equipment falls under the “non-disclosure clauses” in the contract with the car manufacturers.

Several ministries say something like this. In the house of Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann (FDP) - who uses two Audi A8s - it is allegedly not known at all how high the price reduction is: "The manufacturers do not communicate the amount of possible discounts granted by the manufacturers in detail," writes the authority upon request.

While the Federal Criminal Police Office orders armored vehicles for Chancellor Olaf Scholz and some ministers who are particularly at risk, other ministries obtain three offers and then, according to their own statements, take the “most economical” one. How objectively these offers are evaluated is unclear. At least in the case of the most recent order for the two Mercedes limousines for Hubertus Heil, “the minister’s office was also involved in the decision-making process,” as the ministry confirmed.

The labor and construction ministries also claim that the confidentiality clauses on prices and conditions are “in the contracts for all authorities”. This is obviously wrong: The Ministry of the Environment, led by Steffi Lemke (Greens), not only states the monthly leasing rate of their electric Mercedes EQC 400 4Matic (504.20 euros, well below the list rate of 767.80 euros for a sedan without special equipment). Lemke also reveals what extras the car, which was ordered under her predecessor Svenja Schulze, has - including a "seating comfort package", heat-insulating dark-tinted glass and a TV tuner.

In a similarly transparent manner, the SPD politician Schulze also discloses at her new job, the Ministry of Development Aid, how high the leasing rate of her current Mercedes EQS 450 electric body is: you pay 2330.23 euros per month - obviously a non-discounted price.

The driving pleasure of the SPD politician is relatively expensive for taxpayers. Thanks to the discounts that some federal ministers take advantage of when buying their limousines, their vehicles can be sold without great losses or possibly even at a profit. According to the Ministry of Finance in the latest budget, the "additional revenue" could then be used by ministries "to increase spending on the procurement of replacement service vehicles". The ministers regularly exchange their personal company cars for newer models.

From next year, the ministers will even be able to pay 83,000 euros per body for them – an increase of almost eleven percent. According to the federal government, “the current price developments on the vehicle market” would thus be taken into account.

At the same time, the question of the lack of transparency remains - and the reasons given by the federal government for this. The Federal Ministry of Finance recently presented its very own version in response to a request from left-wing budget politician Victor Perli. The ministry did not refer to alleged confidentiality in its reply to the deputy's question about the discounts. Instead, the agency argued that comparing it to list prices "would give a distorted picture" because other buyers also benefited from discounts.

Perli finds this argument "ridiculous", as he said: "Obviously the federal government does not trust the citizens to judge."

What is certain is that a separate administrative regulation usually obliges the federal authorities to publish sponsorship amounts received from private companies. "Company car discounts must be disclosed as sponsorship," demands Margarete Bause, vice chair of the anti-corruption organization Transparency International. From their point of view, the confidentiality obligations to which many ministries refer are “incomprehensible”.

Why are the discounts not disclosed? In the federal government, the Federal Ministry of the Interior, led by Nancy Faeser (SPD), is responsible for preventing corruption and thus also for sponsoring. There they do not want to answer the question of secret discounts, even after repeated inquiries.