Salaries of North German municipal company executives often kept secret

A new investigation has found that the salaries of executives at municipal companies across North Germany are frequently kept secret. Transparency is notably low in Lower Saxony, where the pay gap ranges from unpaid side jobs to annual incomes of approximately 900,000 euros. The findings come from research conducted by NDR's political magazine "Panorama 3", covering all districts, independent cities, and cities with over 70,000 inhabitants in the region.

Lower Saxony ranks as the least transparent region in this comparison. Only 0.09 percent of its municipal companies disclosed the remuneration of their managing directors and board members. In Schleswig-Holstein, about half of the questioned cities and districts made almost all municipal company salaries public. Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania fares better, with salaries for many municipal company heads accessible to citizens in most districts and in Rostock and Schwerin. Western Pomerania-Rügen and Western Pomerania-Greifswald are exceptions. Hamburg and the city-state of Bremen are presented as exemplary, with numerous executive salaries being openly available.

Helmut Brocke from Transparency International has long advocated for the disclosure of municipal manager salaries, citing Hamburg as a model. He argues that these companies handle essential public services like public transport, waste disposal, and energy supply. Ultimately, the local authorities are responsible to the citizens, making their executives akin to public officials.

Municipalities in North Germany hold stakes in hundreds of companies. The highest earner identified was Klaus-Dieter Peters, CEO of Hamburg Port and Logistics Corporation (HHLA), who earned 950,000 euros in 2014. In Lower Saxony, executives at Stadtwerke Hannover AG, Sparkasse Hannover, and Klinikum Region Hannover received substantial compensation, though only collective board figures were available, not individual salaries. In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Josef Wolf, head of Stadtwerke Schwerin, earned 257,000 euros in 2015.

While most North German states have regulations in place requiring salary disclosure, many companies fail to comply. Lower Saxony currently lacks a specific transparency law to compel such disclosures, despite a government pledge. Local associations are actively resisting the introduction of such a law, citing concerns about "envy debates", while taxpayer advocates argue for the citizens' right to know what public funds are paying for.