Explanation of the term

In public administration, sponsoring means the following measures:

• donations of cash or non-cash benefits or services
• by a private person
• to a public authority
• to promote the work of the administration (i.e. any and all activities in the context of the public service and any and all activities relating to the administration’s profile)
• with the aim of thus gaining an advertising or PR advantage.

The General Administrative Regulation of the Federal Government on Funding of Federal Activities through Payments of Private Individuals (Sponsoring, Donations and other Gifts) (Allgemeine Verwaltungsvorschrift der Bundesregierung zur Förderung von Tätigkeiten des Bundes durch Leistungen Privater (Sponsoring, Spenden und sonstige Zuwendungen) of 2003 contains instructions on treatment of sponsoring in the Federal Administration. It extends and specifies the Federal Government Directive on Corruption Prevention (Richtlinie der Bundesregierung zur Korruptionsprävention) dated 17 June 1998.

According to this administrative regulation, the public administration must avoid any appearance of third party influence in order to safeguard the integrity and neutrality of the State and, accordingly, the acceptance of sponsoring payments should constitute the exception and not the rule. Even if sponsoring may contribute to achieving desirable administrative objectives in suitable cases, public tasks are generally to be financed from budget funds.

Legal framework conditions

Therefore the administrative regulation prescribes a series of principles for treatment of sponsoring, e.g.:

• Sponsoring may only be considered as a supplement; public duties must generally be financed from budget funds.
• The procurement and acceptance of sponsoring should generally be decided in a restrictive manner.
• Sponsoring payments must always be made in a transparent manner in order to prevent the public administration from being partisan.
• Sponsoring is generally not permitted in the context of administrative acts that impact an individual’s freedom of choice.

These rules of the administrative regulation are supplemented by implementation instructions by the Federal Ministry of the Interior and implementation provisions of the Federal Ministry of Finance. The latter specifies special rules for the Federal Ministry of Finance's area of responsibility.

BaFin's sponsoring policy

Since the administrative provision stipulates that sponsoring is not permitted in administrative acts that impact the individual’s freedom of choice, BaFin’s management has decided that BaFin will not accept any sponsoring – either as sponsor or as sponsored party – since BaFin's reputation, particularly the confidence in its absolute independence and neutrality, may not be allowed to be influenced by potential sponsoring activities. This decision applies to any administrative act, i.e. sponsoring will not be accepted even if BaFin does not act in the context of the administrative decision that impacts the individual’s freedom of choice.