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A PUK should provide clarity about the processes surrounding the takeover of Credit Suisse (CS) by competitor UBS in March: the Bureau of the Council of States also spoke out in favor of such an investigation on Wednesday.
Most recently, the Audit Committee of the Council of States (GPK-S) campaigned for this on Monday. But what exactly does that mean and when can we expect the first results? Blick has the most important answers.
What is a PUK?
The abbreviation PUK stands for Palarmist youinvestigativekCommission. It is the strongest means of parliamentary oversight of the Federal Council and administration. It is used to investigate events of great importance.
What exactly does the PUK investigate at CS?
This has not yet been precisely defined. But there are probably complex questions that a CS-PUK has to deal with. These could be the following: Have the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (Finma), the Federal Council and the National Bank (SNB) neglected CS for too long? Did they respond correctly? Should former Finance Minister Ueli Mauer (72) pull the cord long ago?
The SP faction has already formulated 67 questions that the PUK must clarify. For example, the Social Democrats want to know whether the Bundesrat has also looked at other variants and what role foreign governments played in the takeover.
What can the PUK do?
It can call and hear witnesses and see secret Federal Council documents. This is particularly important in the CS case, because a large part of the documents for the acceptance of the CS are kept under lock and key. Requests from the media to see them, citing the Public Information Act, were rejected by the administration. Until now, the Bundesrat wanted to decide for itself what the public was allowed to know and what not.
But even Sergio Ermott (63), the chief executive of the new Superbank, last week called for “a full 360-degree investigation” into Credit Suisse’s downturn.
Who will become a member of the PUK?
The law stipulates that a PUK consists of an equal number of members of the National Council and the Council of States, and these reflect the strength of the parliamentary group. At present, the CS-PUK is expected to have 14 MPs.
Parliamentarians who are questioned must meet certain criteria: they must run again in the autumn. Then they should be able to invest a lot of time in the research over the next two years. Specialist knowledge is also an advantage: lawyers and economists are in great demand.
When will the PUK results be available?
You can’t predict that today. Parliamentarians expect the investigation to take up to two years. This also means that the parties need not fear that the outcome of the election will cast a bad light on their own federal councillors.
Why is a PUK exceptional?
It is the strongest means of parliamentary oversight of the Federal Council and administration. A PUK is only used to investigate events of high importance.
It has been requested many times so far, but at the federal level, a puk has only been used four times. The last in 1995 to investigate complaints to the Federal Pension Fund. Five years earlier, the incidents in the military department were investigated and even after the resignation of Federal Councilor Elisabeth Kopp, a PUK was used, eventually exposing the fichen scandal. And in 1964, a PUK investigated the Mirage buying debacle.
What consequences can a pimple have?
It is charged only with the political processing of the events and does not carry out any task in the field of criminal prosecution. At the end, the PUK publishes a report and can make recommendations in it, for example so that there will not be a second case with CS. The PUK can propose legislative changes, but not impose sanctions.
What’s next?
The Bureau of the National Council will now prepare a decision. This determines the PUK’s mandate and budget. The National Council will probably adopt it in the summer session and it will be adopted later by the Council of States. Both councils must agree to the establishment of a PUK. But that is considered a formality, as all parties have so far spoken in favor of it. The PUK will not start its activities until after the summer session at the earliest.
Source:Blick
I am Liam Livingstone and I work in a news website. My main job is to write articles for the 24 Instant News. My specialty is covering politics and current affairs, which I’m passionate about. I have worked in this field for more than 5 years now and it’s been an amazing journey. With each passing day, my knowledge increases as well as my experience of the world we live in today.
