Organisational Structure of the City Administration

As a rule, the entire City Administration is subdivided into Administrative Groups, which in turn consist of several Municipal Departments and enterprises. There are three exceptions, however: the Chief Executive Office, the City of Vienna Court of Audit and the Municipal District Offices are part of the City Administration but do not form part of an Administrative Group.

Administrative Groups

The Administrative Groups must correspond to the administrative units decreed by the City Council. A separate Council Committee is established for each unit, and thus for each Administrative Group. In terms of public law, the Administrative Groups are portfolios comprising related local government tasks and competencies. Every Administrative Group is subdivided into several departments and enterprises. Currently, the City Administration consists of the following Administrative Groups:

• Administrative Group for Finance, Business, Labour, International Affairs and Vienna Public Utilities
• Administrative Group for Education, Youth, Integration and Transparency
• Administrative Group for Social Affairs, Public Health and Sports
• Administrative Group for Housing, Housing Construction, Urban Renewal and Women's Issues
• Administrative Group for Innovation, Urban Planning and Mobility
• Administrative Group for Climate, Environment, Democracy and Personnel
• Administrative Group for Cultural Affairs and Science

In accordance with the current version of the Allocation of Competencies for the Vienna City Administration, the seven Administrative Groups currently comprise 56 Municipal Departments plus three enterprises: the Vienna Health Association (Wiener Gesundheitsverbund), Housing in Vienna (Wiener Wohnen) and Vienna Wastewater Management (Wien Kanal).

As mentioned above, the Chief Executive Office, the City of Vienna Court of Audit and the Municipal District Offices in Vienna are not part of an Administrative Group, and are therefore not headed by an Executive City Councillor.

Chief Executive Office

The Chief Executive Office is headed by the Chief Executive Director and currently comprises the Executive Office of the Mayor (MDP), the Personnel Office of the Vienna Public Utilities (MD-PWS), the Executive Office for Strategic Communication (MD-SKO) and the following four Executive Groups:

• Executive Group for Legal Affairs
• Executive Group for Personnel and Internal Auditing
• Executive Group for Organisation, Safety and Security
• Executive Group for Construction and Technology

The following units are directly subordinate to the Chief Executive Director, and are formally part of the Chief Executive Office as well: "Coordination Unit of the Chief Executive Office" ("Büro MD"), "Group European and International Affairs", "Coordination Group ", "Group for Municipal District Offices and Chauffeur Service", "Communication and International Relations" and "Budget Coordination".

City of Vienna Court of Audit

The City of Vienna Court of Audit forms part of the Vienna City Administration. Its Director is appointed by the Vienna City Council for a term of five years upon the proposal of the Mayor, and may be reappointed after the five-year term has ended. The Director of the City of Vienna Court of Audit can only be recalled by a qualified majority (i.e. two thirds) of the Vienna City Council, and is not subject to any directions concerning the extent and nature of audits.

The City of Vienna Court of Audit is in charge of operational audits (pursuant to sec 73b of the Vienna City Statutes) and safety audits (sec 73c Vienna City Statutes). Operational auditing means ensuring that all management operations conducted by the Vienna City Administration or by funds, foundations with legal personality, and other institutions or facilities managed by bodies of the Vienna City Administration are conducted correctly, in good order and in line with the principles of economy, efficiency and effectiveness. Further auditing tasks are based on the above legal regulations.

The City of Vienna Court of Audit is required to submit an annual report on its activities to the Vienna City Council.

Municipal District Offices

Although the currently 15 Municipal District Offices are part of the City Administration as a single public administrative authority, they do not form part of an Administrative Group. The Municipal District Offices are headed by legally qualified civil servants, who are provided with the necessary number of staff depending on the requirements of the respective district. They perform the tasks assigned to them in the Allocation of Competencies of the Vienna City Administration.