The costs of state universities for police officers and soldiers gradually increased, however relevant ministries were not interested in how universities actually work
Press Release on Audit No 19/20 – 7 December 2020
The Supreme Audit Office examined how the Police Academy of the Czech Republic in Prague and the University of Defence in Brno succeeded in meeting the training needs of the police and the army between the years 2016 and 2019. The audit revealed several problems, be it the number of graduates from these schools joining the security forces and armed forces, or the fulfilment of the numbers of student soldiers and police officers. Neither the Ministry of the Interior (MoI), nor the Ministry of Defence (MoD) monitored whether the schools they were funding actually functioned effectively. Nevertheless, they kept spending more and more money on the schools.
The Police Academy and the University of Defence are the only state universities in the Czech Republic. The Police Academy is an organisational unit of the state and is funded from the budget of the Ministry of the Interior. The University of Defence is part of the Ministry of Defence, so it is funded from the Ministry’s budget. Both schools are primarily intended to train experts for the security forces and the army.
Between the years 2016 and 2019, the number of university-educated police officers working for the police was three times higher than was necessary according to the allocation plan. According to the MoI, this resulted in a high turnover and earlier departures from the service. However, the Ministry did not take this into account, and set the numbers of students admitted to the Police Academy in such a way that they did not correspond to the actual needs of the police.
At the same time, almost 43% of police officers who studied during active service chose a different university. The MoI did not require a specialised field of study from the Police Academy. Moreover, the Police Academy was not regarded as a professional police academy neither by the MoI, nor by the police. In the above mentioned years, only 21% of Police Academy graduates were admitted to senior positions at the police force. However, the costs of operating the Academy were steadily growing.
Similar problems were identified by the auditors in the case of the University of Defence. The number of military graduates decreased between the years 2016 and 2019 and the MoD’s requirements for the number of students received were fulfilled by only 64%. The number of vacant posts for university-educated staff in the army increased by 15% over this period. Unlike the Police Academy, the University of Defence was the main source of university-educated officers for the army. The Ministry also spent more and more money on its activities during the years in question. The costs increased by CZK 188 million.
Although spending has not increased, none of the Ministries addressed how effective the functioning of state universities actually was. For example, they did not monitor the costs per student or the use of real estate managed by the schools. The Ministries determined the budget of the schools on the basis of how they had drawn on funds in previous years.
Communication Department
Supreme Audit Office