Last but not least: Expensive farewell gift for former boss Walpen
In his final year as SRG Director General, Armin Walpen received CHF 621,000, an increase of CHF 45,000 compared to the previous year.
Interestingly, SRG was still talking about cost-cutting measures in April 2010.
At a press conference on April 27, the SRG management declared 2010 to be a year of crisis. The gloomy financial future of the public broadcasting company would force it to make savings, warned Walpen and Chairman of the Board Jean-Bernard Münch at the time. Nevertheless, the Director General received a substantial salary increase, most of which was related to fringe benefits. For example, he received a special discount of around CHF 35,000 on his company car from SRG. This can be seen in SRG's 2010 annual report, which will be published next week and is available to the Sonntagszeitung.
Since 2005, all SRG directors have benefited from such a discount when purchasing a company car, according to a regulation. These regulations fully legitimize his special discount, Armin Walpen defends himself to the Sonntagszeitung. These rules were decided by the Board of Directors. Now, however, the discount rule is to be abolished. This means that Walpen's successor, Roger de Weck, will not only have to dig deeper into his pockets for his company car. His salary is also lower, according to well-informed sources in the Sonntagszeitung. However, the reason for this is not "years of crisis" or other reasons for saving money, but simply his younger age and less experience.
