1.3 Federal administration

The federal administration is headed by the head of state (the federal president) and by the federal ministers. The head of state is directly elected by the people every six years.

The federal government

The federal government is made up of the federal chancellor, the vice-chancellor and the other federal ministers.

The federal president is free to appoint a federal chancellor of his or her choice, who then submits to the head of state a proposal for the nomination (or dismissal) of the federal ministers and state secretaries. The federal government is subject to parliamentary supervision: if parliament casts a motion of no confidence in individual ministers or the government as a whole, the entire government or the respective minister must be removed from office.

The federal ministers are not subject to any directions from the federal chancellor in their everyday conduct of business.

The federal government performs its tasks as a collegial or collective body chaired by the Federal Chancellor. Its decisions are taken unanimously.

State secretaries

State secretaries are nominated or dismissed by the federal president upon the proposal of the federal chancellor. They are not part of the federal government but act as aides to the federal ministers, assisting them in their "everyday conduct of business", and representing them "in parliament as needed." Although they may be assigned specific tasks by the competent minister, they are not a priori responsible for any specific duties.

Federal ministries

The federal ministries act as auxiliary bodies to the respective federal ministers. Their number, tasks and designations are laid down in the Federal Ministries Act. They are governed by the principle of monocratic organisation, which means that the federal ministers decide on and are responsible for the conduct of business in compliance with general regulations.

The federal chancellor is the head of the Federal Chancellery.

Direct federal administration

The term "direct federal administration" means that federal authorities have been established specifically for performing administrative tasks reserved to the federal level. In this field, ultimate decision-making power usually rests with the competent federal minister.

The tasks to be carried out directly by the federal authorities are defined in the Austrian Federal Constitution (sec 102 B-VG). It should be noted that the provinces and municipalities are practically not involved in matters of direct federal administration.

Indirect federal administration

The principle of indirect federal administration implies that the federal state is required to delegate all matters that must not be performed at federal level to the provincial governors or their subordinate authorities. If this is not the case, approval from the federal provinces is required.

From an organisational point of view this constitutes a classic case of decentralisation. Decentralisation in this context refers to the delegation of tasks, decision-making rights and responsibilities to decentralised bodies in accordance with the relevant legal provisions. In principle, these bodies are free to take their own decisions in compliance with statutory regulations. However, they may be obliged to report to superordinate authorities and to follow directions from these authorities.

As a rule, tasks of indirect federal administration at administrative authority level are performed by provincial bodies, i.e. monocratic administrative authorities in charge of individual administrative districts.

In matters of indirect federal administration, the district administrative authorities are subordinate to the provincial governors. The Offices of Provincial Governments assist the governors in their duties. These offices are headed by legally trained employees with the title "Head of the Office of the Provincial Government".