Auditing operation No. 03/19
State enterprises management of state property and State Budget funds in air transport
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. 03/19. 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 management of the State Budget funds and state property earmarked for The Air Navigation Services, state enterprise, and The Czech Airports Authority, state enterprise.
The audited period covered the years 2000 to 2003 as well as previous periods in case of relevant connections.
The audited bodies were the Ministry of Transport (hereinafter referred to as „MT“), The Air Navigation Services, state enterprise (hereinafter referred to as „ANS“), and The Czech Airports Authority, state enterprise (hereinafter referred to as „CAA“).
In both formal and substantive terms, the MT was lax in carrying out its founders’ duties as laid down by the Act No. 7/1997 Coll., on state enterprise, and its duties under
Act No. 2/1969 Coll. It restricted the authorization powers of the supervisory boards of the ANS and the CAA, even though it does not have sufficient capacity to systematically control the state enterprise. In doing so the MT fundamentally weakened the supervisory and control mechanism on state enterprise. Beyond the scope of its authority the MT announced a public tender to select an operator for Brno-Tuřany Airport. The MT set up the terms of the tender in a way that induced only one bidder could win (because only an in advance prepared bidder could keep the tender deadline).
The ANS and the CAA have been evading best practice in the phase of preparing for investments, in particular neglecting alternative preparations for building works with subsequent objective assessment of the alternatives as it was done only in the case of the new take-off and landing strips at Prague-Ruzyně Airport.