There is currently a growing concern as to whether the proposed “blacklist” of companies identified for illegal worker money laundering will be effective in 2020. Initially, the project was announced by the Federal Minister of Economics Brigitte Zypries (SPD) about three years ago, that it will be ready by 2019. A new note came out that it will be operational by the end of 2020. The proposed project that will accommodate 50,000 entries is aimed at electronically storing records of companies that have engaged in offenses such as bribery, money-laundering, human-trafficking and minimum wage violation etc.
This is aimed to help the public to check if a company has a record of misconduct before awarding contracts to them. According to the Kartellamt chief Andreas Mundt the Handelsblatt, the future competition register will be installed at the Federal Cartel Office and will do its part as regards combating white-collar crime. He further said that the complex nature of the project, including developing a strong IT infrastructure is the reason for the delay. The public prosecutors and authorities are supposed to be allowed to register violations electronically, and also the 30,000conracting authorities should have the right to carry out queries on bidders fully electronically. The Ministry of Economic Affairs talks about the time-consuming process and the need to establish secure communication channels to ensure that data are effectively secured. The opposition has expressed worries on the delay, as it is important for the public sector to ensure contracts are only awarded to ‘clean’ companies.
