Ministry of Agriculture paid little attention to the EU inspection authorities
Press Release – February 15, 2008
An audit report, which has been submitted by the Supreme Audit Office (SAO), claims that the system of direct payment within the frame of the Common Agriculture Policy meets the requirements as defined by the legal enactments of the European Community.
The audited bodies were the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Agriculture, and the central site of the State Agricultural Intervention Fund with its local departments. The audit aimed at state budget funds and financial resources from EU earmarked for the direct payments within the frame of the Common Agriculture Policy, and the use of the resources according to the given legal conditions. The audited period extended from 2004 to 2006, when more than CZK 37 billion was refunded on behalf of nearly 95 thousand direct payment applications.
The audit revealed several insufficiencies that had already been reported from the previous audit No. 06/26, which focused on the Horizontal Rural Development Plan. Insufficiencies of the organization and exercising of financial audits over the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Agriculture have been found alarming.
“It was inadequate to delegate powers of the State Agricultural Intervention Fund to the Ministry of Agriculture, for example with the applications for sugar payments in 2006. As the state budget funds lacked financial resources, the fund was approved by the Ministry of Agriculture to loan drawdown for the direct payments from a commercial bank. The bank interests reached over CZK 1,3 million by June 2007. The legal enactments of the Czech Republic are slightly incompatible with the EU, especially with the time incidence of the relevant decrees of the Czech government. The Ministry of Agriculture missed out the evaluation of the previous EU auditing inspections,“ said František Dohnal, president of the SAO.
The audit operation was included into the 2007 Audit Plan of the SAO under No. 07/11. Jiří Kalivoda, Member of the SAO, controlled the audit and drew up the audit report as well.
Radka Burketová
Press Speaker
Supreme Audit Office