Achieving energy efficiency in public buildings is not advancing as quickly as necessary. The Czech state is unable to make use of the available funds

Press Release on audit No 20/05 – 12 April 2021


The SAO examined the funds allocated for the support of achieving energy efficiency in public sector buildings between the years 2017 and 2020. The funds came from the Operational Programme Environment 2014-2020 (OPE) and the New Green Savings (NGS) programme. The two programmes provided a total of CZK 3.5 billion. According to the auditors, the financial aid contributes to a reduction in the energy consumption of public buildings, however it represents only a fifth of the savings to be achieved through the OPE. By mid-2020, only 17% of projects had been completed. Moreover, the state is insufficiently drawing funds from the two programmes in order to reduce the final energy consumption of its own buildings. It is therefore possible that the Czech Republic will not achieve the EU target for the energy efficiency of buildings. Moreover, project administration often takes longer than it should.

From both programmes, the OPE and the NGS, more than CZK 20 billion is available for public institutions to achieve energy efficiency. By mid-2020, CZK 3.5 billion had been used for these projects. The energy efficiency in public buildings achieved through the aid represents only one fifth of the savings planned under the OPE. Since the first call in 2015, only 17% of projects had been completed by mid-2020. However, the total number of active aid applications amounted to two and a half thousand. The NGS programme was established in 2013, but the sub-programme for public buildings was prepared and approved by the Ministry of the Environment at the end of 2016.

The audit also pointed out that the NGS programme did not receive as much resources from the sale of emission allowances as it should have received according to the law. It is worth noting that this is the only source of funds for this programme. In the years under review, auctioning of emission allowances totalled CZK 36 billion. According to the law, CZK 14.6 billion was to go to the NGS energy savings programme. Instead, only CZK 7.4 billion was allocated to the programme’s budget, out of which CZK 5.3 billion had been disbursed by mid-2020. Of this amount, only CZK 0.5 billion was spent on improving energy efficiency in public buildings.

Aid for energy efficiency in public buildings is also intended to reduce consumption in buildings owned and used by central government institutions. These are meant to lead by example in improving energy efficiency. However, by 2019, about 76% of the 774 buildings were not meeting the energy performance requirements. In 2019, the Ministry of the Environment allocated CZK 2 billion exclusively for government institutions, but only 20% of this amount was used up. In mid-2020, only 13 projects co-financed by the OPE and the NGS were on-going at government institutions and none were completed.

According to the auditors, there is a risk that the Czech Republic has failed to achieve energy efficiency to the extent required by the objectives set by the EU. By the end of 2019, the 71% savings target had been achieved. This accounted for the remaining 29% in 2020, which is 28.6 TJ. However, at the end of July 2020, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the planned new energy savings were to be 5.7 TJ/year.

The auditors also examined 15 selected projects and did not find that the allocated money was spent inefficiently or uneconomically. However, the audit highlighted weaknesses in the administration of aid applications. Moreover, project approval took longer than it should have. For the OPE, the set period exceeded 7 months in 40% of cases. For projects co-financed by both OPE and NGS, the set period was exceeded in all cases and almost always took more than one year to be approved.

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