SAO: It will take almost CZK 150 billion and 50 years to complete the land consolidation process. But it is the state which will fully cover the costs.
PRESS RELEASE ON AUDIT No 23/31 – 13 January 2025
The state spent a total of CZK 36.2 billion on land consolidation between the years 1991 and 2023. By the end of 2023, comprehensive land consolidation had been completed in one quarter of the 12,232 cadastral territories. 9,186 cadastral territories have not yet been completed. This was revealed by the SAO audit focused on state and EU funds earmarked for land consolidation. According to the auditors, the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) does not have comprehensive information on how much money will be needed to complete the land consolidation process. The SAO has roughly estimated this amount at almost CZK 150 billion (in today's prices). The costs are, however, fully covered by the state.
If the current method of financing, the average amount of annual expenditures (about CZK 1.9 billion over the last 10 years) and the current pace of land consolidation were maintained, it would take at least 50 more years to complete in the remaining cadastral territories.
The costs of land consolidation in the Czech Republic are fully covered by the state, although the law allows for the financial involvement of municipalities and landowners. The SAO found that in Bavaria, for example, the state contribution to land consolidation amounts to up to 75% or 65% (for the consolidation of vineyards). The remaining 25% (or 35%) of the costs are borne by municipalities and farmers.
Land consolidation is a continuous process, where the division and consolidation of land will continue in the future. New owners, impacts caused by climate change, etc. will continue to enter the process. This will permanently require additional financial resources beyond the above-mentioned estimate, especially from the state budget. The audit has showed that although the MoA and the State Land Office (SLO) have developed strategic and conceptual materials, however, neither of them provides information on the future scope of land consolidation. The MoA did not consistently monitor and evaluate the effectiveness and economy of the funds spent on land consolidation, thus failed to fulfil its statutory obligations.
The publicly available application Land Consolidation Overview, which was part of the eAgri portal, was used by the MoA and the SLO to record data on land consolidation. According to the SAO's findings, this publicly available application provided unreliable data on the land consolidation carried out. More than 68% of the records contained incomplete and erroneous data. For example, the variance of the cost per a linear metre of unpaved road ranged from CZK 1.47 to CZK 144,478,173. The amount of CZK 6.15 million was spent on the creation and management of this application. According to the SAO, these funds were spent ineffectively. The new information system for land consolidation management and planning should be fully operational from January 2025. In this context, the SAO points out that the SLO does not have a comprehensive database other than the existing erroneous data in the Land Consolidation Overview application.
One of the main objectives of land consolidation is to respond to climate change as far as possible. As stated in the 2030 Strategy of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Czech Republic, increasing temperature, its fluctuations and hydrological extremes in the form of drought and flood can be considered as consequences to which adaptation is needed. The SAO audit showed that since 2013, the SLO had spent 80% of its available funds, i.e. CZK 12 billion, on the construction or reconstruction of unpaved roads - CZK 3.3 billion was spent on environmental measures. Moreover, neither the MoA nor the SLO monitored and evaluated whether the CZK 3.3 billion on land consolidation resulted in a reduction in the negative impacts of climate change.
An overview of the implemented unpaved roads or cadastral areas, where the administrative procedure for land consolidation has already been completed, and other details can be found in this interactive annex (only czech).
Communication Department
Supreme Audit Office