Data in digital technical maps are incomplete and unreliable due to the inactivity of infrastructure owners, despite billions in subsidies
PRESS RELEASE ON AUDIT NO 24/07 – 14 July 2025
Digital technical maps lack reliable information about the locations of gas pipelines, water pipes, sewer systems, electrical and communication cables, and other elements of technical infrastructure. From a data standpoint, the system of digital technical maps is incomplete and unreliable, which significantly limits its benefits for the development of high-speed internet (especially using optical networks), and therefore also the effectiveness of the financial resources invested. This was revealed by an audit conducted by the Supreme Audit Office (SAO) focused on funds spent primarily between 2019 and 2024 on the creation and development of the digital technical map system. According to the SAO, the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) and the Czech Office for Surveying, Mapping and Cadastre (COSMC) spent a total of CZK 3.14 billion* on the system, with reduced effectiveness.
Under the Act No 200/1994 Coll., on Surveying and Mapping, as amended, as of 1 July 2024, regional digital technical maps were expected to be a source of complete and reliable information about the transport and technical infrastructure of regions and its location. However, the SAO's audit revealed that digital technical maps are missing data from more than half of the infrastructure owners identified by the COSMC. This means that thousands of private entities failed to provide the legally required data to the digital technical maps. Over 50% of the infrastructure objects in the audited sample from the Ústí Region lacked reliable location information – the location was either unspecified or inaccurate.
Subsidies provided by the MoIT were intended to help connect 500,000 new households to high-speed internet with a minimum transfer speed of 30 Mbps. In 2021, this goal was reduced by the MoIT to 24,000 households – a goal that still was not achieved. Thus, during the audited period, digital technical maps did not contribute to meeting this objective.
“The digital technical map system will require further multi-billion-crown investments in the coming years to support the construction of very high-capacity networks,” said Josef Kubíček, Member of the SAO, who led the audit. The MoIT has already allocated an additional CZK 1.68 billion from the National Recovery Plan for the completion of the digital technical maps. However, the SAO warns that even this additional funding may not be sufficient to complete the system. According to the auditors, there is also a risk that allocating funds to remap already digitised areas could violate the principle of avoiding double financing.
Communication Department
Supreme Audit Office
*The MoIT provided CZK 2.89 billion to thirteen regions through the Operational Programme Enterprise and Innovation for Competitiveness 2014–2020 (the capital city of Prague was not a beneficiary) to support the creation of digital technical maps. At the same time, the COSMC spent CZK 247 million on the creation of a digital map for public administration, a central system that integrates and coordinates regional digital technical maps.