The Broadcasting Council should elect an interim director at Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB) “as soon as possible”.
That said the incumbent chairman of the Broadcasting Council, Dieter Pienkny, on Thursday evening in Berlin.
In theory, he could imagine that the election could take place in a special session as early as next week.
However, that depends on how the search goes.
A committee made up of the heads of the RBB control bodies, the Administrative Board and the Broadcasting Council, as well as one member each of the staff council and the freelance representation, should quickly develop one or more personnel proposals.
A public tender is not being held because of the delay involved.
Among other things, Pienkny named distance from the state and integrity as important criteria for the interim boss.
He assumes that there could be candidates who are no longer actively involved in professional life.
The interim boss should stay in office for a maximum of one year until a new director is appointed.
Next Tuesday, however, the board of directors - i.e. the control body for the operational business of the RBB management - will meet again, as Pienkny said.
An interim boss is being sought because the current RBB management team around the director Patricia Schlesinger, who was fired without notice, has been criticized for dealing with the nepotism scandal.
The Board of Directors had called for an interim management.
The ARD directors announced at the weekend that they had lost confidence in the RBB leadership.
The Broadcasting Council based its decision on the course of the election of an interim director on a corresponding assessment of the legal supervision, which is currently held by the state of Brandenburg.
On the agenda on Thursday was, among other things, the item "Crisis management - future of the management".
At the beginning there was a lengthy discussion about whether the session should be public - eventually the public was excluded.
Legal Director Susann Lange, who is part of the leadership circle, also attended the Broadcasting Council meeting.
Board members were also there.
RBB employees had previously requested a say in the appointment of an interim leader and a future director in a resolution.
This should also be recorded in the RBB state contract.
The former director Patricia Schlesinger, who was fired without notice, has been facing numerous allegations since the end of June.
She has been ARD chairwoman since the beginning of the year and RBB director since 2016.
She resigned from both offices – before she was dismissed.
In addition to Schlesinger, the focus of the scandal is also the resigned RBB chairman of the board of directors, Wolf-Dieter Wolf.
Both rejected the allegations against them.
Among other things, it is about controversial consulting contracts for an RBB construction project, about agreements between the two on salary and about bonuses for Schlesinger.
It is also about orders for her husband, the ex-"Spiegel" journalist Gerhard Spörl, at Messe Berlin - where Wolf was also chief supervisor until recently.
The Berlin Public Prosecutor's Office is investigating all three on suspicion of infidelity and acceptance of benefits.
It is the presumption of innocence.
An external investigation into a law firm is also underway.
There are no results yet.