Conditions and limits of administrative assistance

(1) An authority may request administrative assistance in particular where it 1. cannot itself carry out the official act for legal reasons; 2. cannot itself carry out the official act for factual reasons, in particular because it lacks the service personnel or facilities required to carry out the official act; 3. depends, for the performance of its functions, on knowledge of facts that are unknown to it and that it cannot itself ascertain; 4. requires, for the performance of its functions, documents or other evidence in the possession of the requested authority; 5. could carry out the official act itself only with substantially greater effort than the requested authority.
(2) The requested authority may not render assistance where 1. it is not in a position to do so for legal reasons; 2. rendering the assistance would cause substantial disadvantage to the welfare of the Federation or of a Land. The requested authority is in particular not obliged to produce documents or files, or to provide information, where the matters must be kept secret under a statute or by their nature.
(3) The requested authority need not render assistance where 1. another authority could render the assistance substantially more simply or with substantially less effort; 2. it could render the assistance only with disproportionately great effort; 3. having regard to the functions of the requesting authority, it would, by rendering the assistance, seriously endanger the performance of its own functions.
(4) The requested authority may not refuse the assistance on the ground that it considers the request inexpedient for reasons other than those named in subsection (3), or that it considers the measure to be realised through the administrative assistance inexpedient.
(5) Where the requested authority does not consider itself obliged to render assistance, it communicates its view to the requesting authority. Where the latter insists on the administrative assistance, the common supervisory authority, or, where none exists, the supervisory authority competent for the requested authority, decides on the obligation to render administrative assistance.