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Concert hall spends €300 on a toilet brush

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Concert hall spends €300 on a toilet brush
The concert hall is years late and has run massively overbudget. Photo: DPA

The costs of a new concert hall in Hamburg, which have exploded to €800 million, are under further fire after almost €1,000 was spent on a paper towel dispenser and €300 on a toilet brush.

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A parliamentary report into spending at the Elbe Philharmonic Hall criticizes the project for seeking “excessive luxury”, the Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper reported.

The newspaper, which has seen a copy of the draft report, described it as a “testament to horror.”

Politicians, who spent two years on the parliamentary committee investigation, were particularly taken aback by spending on the toilets.

“Everyone involved in this project should have known that the claim of a public sector building to be counted among world architecture does not necessarily extend to toilet brushes costing €291.97 each," it said.

Along with the expensive toilet brushes paper towel dispensers cost €957 each.

At more than 800 pages, the report, due to be published in full early next year, criticizes the failure of politics and managers to get the costs under control.

The state prosecutor will also check the report.

In 2007 construction was scheduled to be finished in three years at a cost of €241 million. That was up from an estimate of €186 million in 2005.

It is now due to open in 2017 costing more than €800 million.

READ MORE: Germany wastes billions on bizarre projects

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