Performance Audit “Organisation of Elections”
First SAO´s audit where geographical information systems were used
The SAO has been strengthening the principles behind ISSAI 12 for a long time with its activities and agrees with the expectations from the public that supreme audit institution should contribute to the improvement of the life quality of citizens. The level to which can an SAI improve the lives of citizens depends among others on how the SAI can provide its relevance for citizens, parliament and other stakeholders. The topic of “Organisation of Election” was for the SAO a new theme which proved its relevancy and ability to react to citizens´ problems.
The Supreme Audit Office has in the audit of elections organisation scrutinised the thesis whether the state financed the preparation and organisation of elections in the period 2010 – 2014 in an efficient, effective and economical manner. The auditors focused on elections into the European parliament held in 2009 and 2013, and the presidential elections held in 2013. The state expenses related to elections were approx. € 15.3 – 17.8 million for one round and the state paid in total more than € 83.6 million. The SAO analysed the number and distribution of wards, correspondence of polling station addresses, the geographic accessibility of election polls for voters or the utilisation, and location of the election workstations. Over the past twenty years, the SAO became the first institution to have taken interest in these aspects.
For example, during the elections to the European Parliament in 2014, the election expenditures amounted to CZK 117 million with the municipalities and to CZK 105 million with the statutory cities. The greatest portion of municipal expenditures comprised of remuneration of members of ward electoral commissions. Auditors revealed that the system of financing the election expenditures of municipalities allowed for significant differences in the costs per one ward. The SAO recommended to the Ministry of Finance that the financing of municipal expenditures on elections should be simplified, because the administration processes constitutes a financial challenge, especially for small municipalities. At the same time, the system of controlling these expenditures, which the Ministry of Finance is responsible for, should also be improved. The audit revealed that the Ministry only marginally controlled municipalities with extended competencies of delegated state administration and statutory cities, in spite of the fact that the average as well as absolute expenditures were the highest in these municipalities.
In order to examine the geographic accessibility of elections as a service with its quality influenced mainly by the structure and number of wards, and furthermore the accessibility of connection points of the Czech Statistical Office for election committees, the auditors chose analytical and visualisation tools of geographic information systems with the ESRI ArcGIS technology. For the first time this has been used by the auditors. The database of the CR ArcCE 500- which is set up in the 1:500 000 in combination with geological documents from the network Street Premium for ArcGIS.
The SAO thanks to these tools found significant differences. For example, during the elections to the European Parliament in 2014, there were seven wards in Neurazy, which is a municipality with the area of 27 square kilometres, while there was only one ward established in Chodová Planá, which has the area of 57 square kilometres and almost double the number of eligible voters. Both municipalities did observe the conditions stipulated by the law. However, the issue of different geographic access to polling stations has not been addressed in the electoral code over the past 20 years.
Picture: Examples of municipalities with low or high accessibility of elections:
Source: CSO and RUIAN data.
Wards were specified by municipalities based on a law from 1994, which stipulated that each ward should cover at least 1 000 eligible voters. Regardless of the number of inhabitants, there should be at least one polling station in each municipality, and other can be established in unincorporated settlements. More than 58 % of electoral divisions have less than 666 voters, with more than one-third of divisions having less than 333 voters. The average number of voters in one electoral division is 568 in the Czech Republic, which is the least when compared to the numbers in Poland, Austria, and Slovakia.
In the European perspective is the CR typical for its territorial differences and high number of municipalities. There are more than 90 000 of municipalities in the EU out of which 80% is in France, Germany, Spain, Italy and the CR. The population density is however different. The Czech municipalities have the lowest average number of inhabitants (1 640 for one municipality). The size of the municipalities is also among the smallest (average area size is 13 km²).
Without increasing the distance of voters to the ballot boxes, the number of wards could be decreased in case of coinciding addresses of polling stations. For example, there were 143 wards at 36 different addresses for some 100,000 voters in Pilsen during the parliamentary elections in 2013. Auditors estimated that the number of wards could be decreased by 27 with each ward still having only 1,000 voters, which would generate savings in the amount of € 23 000 for each election.
The conditions set by the law for the elections are strict, which is the point for complaints from the municipalities. Ministry of the Interior has suggested the amendment three times since 2004, but without success. The SAO recommended to the Ministry of the Interior to inintialise the amendment of the conditions. Wards are according to the law related to the workstation with reference to the catchment area. If the committees use closer workstations, the state would save on the transport and the results of the elections would not be influenced. As an examples Vranov municipality can be used which lies only three km from Brno-Útěchové, but the results are collected in 24 km distant Šlapanice.
The SAO carried out a complex analyses within its audit and visualisation of workstations with respect to effectiveness and accessibility from the wards in three regions of the CR – Pilsen, Vysočina and South-Moravia. Detailed graphical results are here:
- https://www.nku.cz/assets/kon-zavery/k15036_priloha2-mapa.png
- https://www.nku.cz/assets/kon-zavery/k15036_priloha3-mapa.png
The SAO´s recommendations for optimal preparation and organisation of elections aimed at the key institutions of public administration (Ministry of the Interior, Czech Statistical Office, Ministry of Finance) which must closely cooperate with all other self-government offices. The SAO organised a meeting between auditees to discuss the results of audits and recommendations. The SAO made sure that the auditees understand the results properly and can follow the recommendations in order to implement changes with positive impact on the lives of citizens of the CR.