The government has invested nearly CZK one billion in start-up support. However, for most projects, it did not monitor their actual impact
PRESS RELEASE ON AUDIT NO 25/22 – 5 October 2026
The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) provided a total of CZK 914 million to the CzechInvest agency to support start-ups. The funds were intended to contribute to the establishment of new companies, their growth, entry into foreign markets, the development of innovations, and the testing of new technologies. An audit by the Supreme Audit Office (SAO) revealed that, for most projects, the MoIT did not monitor whether these objectives had been achieved. Instead of assessing the actual impact, the ministry mostly monitored only the number of supported entities or settled for incomplete and inconclusive data.
The support included funds from both the state budget and EU resources, specifically from the “National Recovery Plan” and the “Enterprise and Innovation for Competitiveness” Operational Programme. For support financed from the “National Recovery Plan”, amounting to CZK 276 million, the MoIT tracked only the number of supported entities—an indicator which does not disclose anything about the effects of the support. It does not indicate whether the support led to business development, successful international expansion, or the testing of new technologies. The MoIT did not establish indicators for these projects that would allow the actual benefits of the support to be assessed. The SAO points out that, without follow-up monitoring, it will not be possible to conclusively verify the economy, efficiency or effectiveness of the funds spent.
The audit revealed further shortcomings in the “For Start-ups” project, which received CZK 195 million from the ‘Enterprise and Innovation for Competitiveness’ Operational Programme. Although a system for monitoring the impact of the support had been established for this project, it was based on data provided by less than half of the supported start-ups. According to the SAO, the benefits of the support presented by CzechInvest are therefore distorted, and the reported data cannot be considered fully conclusive.
Furthermore, CzechInvest did not consistently enforce the submission of required data by subsidy recipients, even though it had sanction mechanisms at its disposal. Some start-ups failed to fulfil their obligations without facing any consequences. The “sustainability reports” prepared by the supported start-ups were supposed to contain important data on the development of the start-up, such as turnover, number of employees, securing funding from an investor, establishing a foreign branch, or participating in an international event. The MoIT subsequently approved incomplete summary reports prepared by CzechInvest without requesting the missing data be provided.
The only audited project for which the MoIT monitors outcomes is the “Technology Incubation” project, which had received CZK 443 million from the state budget by the end of 2025. The SAO found that, with the approval of the MoIT, CzechInvest had, for an extended period, carried out key activities for this project predominantly through employees of an employment agency. These employees thus effectively replaced CzechInvest’s permanent staff. According to the SAO, this practice resulted in additional costs of CZK 21 million (commissions paid to the employment agency and VAT). The SAO assessed these expenditures as uneconomical. Furthermore, according to the SAO, the use of employees assigned by the employment agency showed signs of a long-term replacement of permanent employment contracts with agency-based employment and circumvention of public administration remuneration regulations.
At the same time, the MoIT failed to fulfil its legal obligation, in managing of the state-funded organisation, to ensure that expenditures were made as economically as possible.
Communication Department
Supreme Audit Office