Digitalisation at the Labour Office has increased client comfort, but has not sped up work for employees
PRESS RELEASE ON AUDIT NO 24/32 – 15 December 2025
At the turn of 2023 and 2024, the Jenda application was launched, allowing citizens to submit online applications for selected state social support benefits, such as parental allowance, housing allowance, and child allowance. The digitalisation of applications increased the comfort of clients of the Labour Office of the Czech Republic (LO). However, it did not speed up the work of its employees. On the contrary, instead of devoting more time to people at risk on the labour market, they had to deal with errors in online applications. And there were five times more of these than in applications submitted in person. This was revealed by an audit of the LO's financial management conducted by the Supreme Audit Office (SAO). The auditors also found that the LO had violated the law in its management of state property. For example, it allowed other entities to use state property free of charge and without concluding a contract, and in some cases, its inaction caused claims to become time-barred. The SAO also found that while the number of security incidents against LO officials was increasing, investment in ensuring their safety was significantly reduced.
Gradual digitalisation was one of the goals of the LO reforms, which began in 2023. It was intended to strengthen a client-oriented approach, reduce administration, and devote the time saved to counselling and individual work with clients. The SAO audit showed that digitalisation increased convenience for approximately one-third of LO clients (35%) who used the option to apply for social benefits online via the Jenda application in 2024. However, instead of providing more intensive assistance to people at risk in the labour market, employees had to deal more often with errors in online applications or devote their time to testing new digital tools.
In 2024, the average processing time from the receipt of applications for state social support benefits to the issuance of a decision by the LO was longer for online applications than for those submitted in person at LO offices. A similar situation was repeated in the first quarter of 2025 for online applications related to employment. The processing time for unemployment benefit applications was on average five days longer and for job placement applications four days longer than for applications submitted in person at LO offices. The error rate for online applications was more than five times higher than for applications submitted in person.
A comparison with other countries shows that while in the first quarter of 2025, approximately 35% of LO clients took advantage of the option to submit online applications for unemployment benefits and job placement, in Sweden, for example, 93% of job placement applications were processed online already in the first quarter of 2020. And in Estonia, for example, decisions on the provision of unemployment benefits have been made entirely automatically without the need for intervention by officials since 2019, thanks to the interconnection of all relevant registers and legislative conditions.
The SAO also audited European funds from the Operational Programme Employment 2014–2020 totalling CZK 1.4 billion. The LO spent these funds between 2016 and 2023 on two projects aimed at streamlining and improving the quality of the Office's activities. The SAO found that the benefits of these projects were only temporary. For example, the LO set up 89 information centres without securing their financing after the end of the project. In the end, only 17 of them remained operational. The SAO considers this approach to be fiscally irresponsible and inefficient. In addition, the LO prolonged the implementation of the projects and changed their budget. Instead of investing, it used the money for personnel costs, including bonuses. According to the SAO, the LO spent at least CZK 34.7 million on personnel costs ineffectively.
The SAO also found that in 2020 and 2021, investment in the purchase of safe counter areas at LO branches was reduced from the planned CZK 136 million to CZK 24.2 million (i.e., 82%). This was at a time when attacks on LO employees were on the rise. While the Office recorded 565 security incidents in 2021, there were already 835 attacks in 2024.
The audit also revealed that the LO violated the law in its management of state property. For example, in six cases, it allowed other entities to use non-residential premises or parts of real estate free of charge and without concluding a contract. The LO spent CZK 3.8 million in an uneconomical manner on the purchase of comprehensive media support, which overlapped with activities provided in parallel by its employees. By the end of the audit, it had also failed to take effective systemic measures to prevent criminal activity by employees, which resulted in a loss of CZK 13.3 million between 2009 and 2022. Some former LO employees transferred money to accounts other than those of eligible social benefit recipients for their own enrichment.
Communication Department
Supreme Audit Office