Overview
- Heveling’s appointment, approved by the Bundestag on Thursday, now awaits Bundesrat confirmation expected Friday.
- He will serve a 12-year term leading the Bundesrechnungshof, a Bonn-based federal audit office with legally protected independence where the president acts as first among equals.
- By law the auditors choose what to probe and work independently, yet they cannot impose penalties, which fall to the Bundestag’s budget committee, a gap outgoing chief Kay Scheller warned risked a “loss of control.”
- Germany’s debt load reached about 1.3 trillion euros by 2019, roughly 850 billion in pandemic credit authorizations were added after that, and the IW now projects around 3.2 trillion in federal debt within five years.
- Heveling, a 53-year-old CDU jurist from Korschenbroich who has served in the Bundestag since 2009 and as the Union bloc’s chief legal officer since 2018, is expected to scrutinize new borrowing and rising interest costs.