A small scale of EU funds' utilization for the Active Employment Policy
Press Release – January 29, 2008
Auditors from the Supreme Audit Office (SAO) focused on the financial resources earmarked for the Active Employment Policy in the period from 2005 to 2006. In 2004, the Ministry of Labour performed an audit entitled "Management system of the Active Employment Policy", which was followed by a significant improvement.
"In comparison with findings from the previous audit that had focused on state budget funds and financial resources earmarked for the Active Employment Policy (Audit Operation No. 99/25), auditors could note several advancements this time,“ said František Dohnal, president of the SAO.
The EU funds were inadequately expended due to the extremely slow-paced process of implementation. "The half-cock implementation of the joint programmes, complicated administration, unsatisfactory staffing, and discrepancy of the rules for projects executed by the employment offices and the rules for grant schemes of the European Social Fund (ESF) were among the reasons of the idleness. But the utilization of amounts should reach 13 billion EUR by 2013, as planned" said Dohnal.
Little increase of the ESF funds utilization came with accepting of the National Employment Plan for the period fro 2004 to 2006 and of the National reform programme for the period from 2005 to 2008. In 2005, only CZK 161 million from the planned CZK 2 billion were utilized for the projects co-financed from the EU budget, while in 2006 it was only CZK 1,3 billion instead of CZK 2,2 billion.
Among other persisting imperfections, the audit report also stated that the ESF requalification settlements had not included the obligation to pay for the training, in case the applicant could not finish the retraining scheme or declined the offered job position.
The auditing operation was included into the 2008 Audit Plan of the SAO under No. 07/06. Jiří Drábek, Member of the SAO Board, controlled the operation and drew up the audit report as well.
Radka Burketová
Press Speaker
Supreme Audit Office