Auditing operation No. 03/33
Funds spent by the Ministry of Transport for processing transport studies
The auditing operation was included in the Annual Audit Plan of the Supreme Audit Office (hereinafter referred to as „SAO“) for the year 2003 under No. 03/33. The auditing operation was managed and audit conclusion drawn up by Mr. Petr Skála, the Member of the SAO.
The aim of the audit was to examine the system of contracting transport studies, the selection of their providers, the effectiveness and economy of the funds spending.
The audited period covered the years from 1993 to 2003.
The audited body was the Ministry of Transport (hereinafter referred to as „MT“).
One system defect was found in the contracting of transport studies in the framework of research and development programmes. It lied in the Ministry’s internal regulations not corresponding to Act No. 199/1994 Coll., the act on public procurement.
Two system defects were found in the contracting of transport studies in the framework of the programme of implementation projects and services assuring the activities of the MT. The system of transport studies contracting in the framework of the programme of implementation projects and services does not resolve the coordination of the transport studies contracting between the MT and the organisations subordinated to its authority, which can cause the duplicity of the contracted transport studies. Furthermore the objectivity of the output of the programme of implementation projects and services is insufficiently resolved in the system, since the internal regulations enable the client to accept the results of the transport study without making an independent opposing assessment, only on the basis of a control evaluation made by a MT employee. The risk of a subjective approach to the results of the transport study thereby arises.
While the system of transport studies contracting in the framework of research and development programmes formally guarantees the adherence to economy and effectiveness, the MT did not react to the warnings of the evaluation commission on the disproportional high expenses of the transport studies in three of the realised studies and unjustifiably accepted the offering price of the solution provider.
In one case it was discerned that the MT concluded a contract with a bidder without declaring a public business tender.
The archiving of transport studies is regulated by internal regulations in the MT, but these regulations are not always observed. This fact decreases the availability of information on the results of the transport studies.