Auditing operation No. 04/09
Social Security Benefits to Socially Needy Persons
The auditing operation was included in the Annual Audit Plan of the Supreme Audit Office (hereinafter referred to as „SAO“) for the year 2004 under No. 04/09. The auditing operation was managed and audit conclusion drawn up by Ms Eliška Kadaňová, the Member of the SAO.
The aim of the audit was to examine the system of paying out social security benefits to socially needy persons.
The audited period covered the year 2003 as well as previous and following periods in case of relevant connections.
The audited bodies were the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (hereinafter referred to as „MLSA“), the Liberec Region, Ústí Region, the Zlín Region and 19 selected municipalities – municipal authorities.
On the basis of the determined facts, the system can be considered as complicated, administratively demanding, and not fully corresponding to the new social and economic conditions and changes in public administration. A system composed in this way is difficult to manage in the full extent and is disadvantageous as regards financing.
The total amount of finances paid out from the State Budget for social security benefits has more than doubled since 1998 as well as its proportion determined to socially needy persons. Expenditures from the State Budget for social care in 2003 equalled CZK 14 145 million of which expenditures determined to socially needy persons equalled CZK 10 181 million.
On the basis of the audit at audited municipalities, it can be stated that the amounts of expenditures for social security benefits to socially needy persons are also affected by their abuse. Social workers see the causes of this particularly in the fact that they often cannot satisfactorily prove even the obvious falseness of information provided by applicants or recipients of assistance. The municipal authorities are not capable of resolving this situation in the absence of effective cooperation with the other authorities and institutions.*)
Increased effectiveness of the system and provision for purposeful expenditures of budgetary funds would be improved especially by:
- Rethinking of the institutional arrangement and creation of preconditions for more efficient management, including an effective control function and the corresponding material-technical and personnel base,
- Adoption of clearly structured and unambiguous legislation creating an appropriate framework for administrative decisions,
- Updating and reducing the variety of existing benefits, especially in relation to the altered social and economic conditions,
- Creation of a suitable information system, which would be a source of up-to-date information and which would simultaneously be compatible with some other systems, e.g. with the system registering job candidates, etc.
At the time of the SAO Audit, the MLSA prepared the substantive intent of the Act on material need and social integration and the Act on the minimum income, which should substantially change the existing system of social security benefits for socially needy persons.
*) On the basis of their experience, the social workers of eleven audited municipalities stated that 10 –35 % of recipients abuse the provision of these benefits, in three municipalities it was estimated that 50 % of recipients abuse these benefits; the social workers of five audited municipalities did not give an estimate. A report of the Research Institute of Labour and Social Affairs states that more than half the addressed social workers are of the opinion that at least 40 % of the recipients abuse benefits for socially needy persons. To keep objectivity, it should be added that social benefits are abused in practically all countries. However, analyses examining conditions in Germany, Italy, Finland and Slovakia stated that „abuse in other countries is not such a great problem as in the Czech Republic“.