External federal advisors: Amherd provides 8 million francs for lawyers

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The Ministry of Defense (VBS) of Viola Amherd (61, center) tendered the contract. She wants to be able to call on law firms for large projects to solve complex legal problems, obtain valuations or obtain legal advice. If necessary, the lawyers also represent the DDPS in legal proceedings. The DDPS makes no less than eight million francs available for the services. Spokeswoman Carolina Bohren says this is the cost ceiling for the next eight years, “the amount does not have to be used up.”

Five law firms chosen by the VBS

The VBS has chosen large, specialized law firms: Walder Wyss in Bern, Homburger in Zurich, MLL in Baar ZG, Kellerhals Carrard in Bern, Lenz & Staehelin in Zurich and Niederer Kraft Frey in Zurich. Bohren notes that the eight million will not be distributed among individual law firms; Their services are used when necessary.

Bohren justifies the fact that in addition to the group of in-house lawyers in the VBS, external help is called in by the fact that in large projects “specific issues require the rapid involvement of specialized lawyers who can provide an independent outside perspective”. ”.

External legal services are nothing special

Armament purchases worth millions and billions in particular, which are linked to complicated contracts – they include contractual penalties for negligence and delays – are, according to the VBS, complex and require a lot of resources.

Last year, the finance department of Karin Keller-Sutter (60, FDP) also used external legal services to handle the merger of UBS and CS. The law firm Niederer Kraft Frey from Zurich was involved in this case. More than ten million francs was agreed as a cost ceiling, while the basic contract for the lawyers yielded almost two million.

Three-digit million amounts for external consultants

The federal government’s expenditure on external consultants and services is increasing; last year, 699 million francs were spent on this, as shown in the 2023 state accounts. This item has been placing a significant burden on the federal treasury for years; in 2013 this amounted to even 858 million. In political initiatives, national and state councilors repeatedly demanded that the federal government reduce costs for private service providers and external consultants.

For example, Lukas Reimann, SVP State Councilor of St. Gall, asked the Federal Council in an interpellation a year ago “what qualitative requirements” the Federal Council and the administration imposed on contractors when awarding external consultancy projects.

The Federal Council responded to this last August by saying that the individual administrative units decided independently, depending on the mandate and budget, whether to implement a project with their own or external resources.

The costs for advisors and services include assignments for reports, expertise and research. The Federal Office for the Environment, the Federal Office for Public Health and the DDPS spend the most money on this.

Contracts are often awarded without a tender

It is notable that a significant number of contracts are awarded privately, that is to say without competition, even though the tenders are more expensive than 230,000 francs. According to the law, service projects above this threshold should actually be put out to tender.

Nevertheless, in 2022 – the figures for 2023 are not yet available – 159 service contracts were awarded directly to an external service provider. According to Regi Mathis-Deplazes of the Finance Department, this is allowed if only one service provider is suitable due to technical or artistic characteristics or for the protection of intellectual property or if it involves continuing an assignment that no other service provider can take over.

Exceptions also apply to development cooperation projects and awards in the field of security and defense.

Source:Blick