The MIT provided least support to the most disadvantaged regions
Press Release – December 10, 2008
From February to July 2008, auditors from the Supreme Audit Office (SAO) performed an audit that aimed at ‘Programme for the Support of Technology Centres and Centres of Business Support Services’. The Programme was implemented from 2004 to 2007 and was intended to provide the support for developing projects for technology centres and centres of business support services and to provide the support for the creation of new jobs with emphasis on less developed regions of the Czech Republic. Auditors focused at observing the rules for providing the aid as well as conditions for drawing from the grants, and the recipients’ utilisation of the financial means.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MIT) failed to anchor the principle of monitoring and evaluating as one of the leading principles of EU’s economic and social cohesion policy; it failed to monitor the progress of the projects and to evaluate the benefits obtained under the Programme.
The MIT also failed to adopt a firmly defined financial plan. This was the reason why the programme suffered from problems of securing the required funding from the MIT’s budget; the funds that failed to be provided for amounted to CZK 220 million in 2005, 471 million in 2006, and 771 million in 2007.
„The Ministry of Industry and Trade channelled most subsidies to the most developed region – the capital city of Prague, thus failing to respect the condition imposed by the pertinent EU regulation on regional public support. Another example of insufficient administration of the Programme is the fact that the Ministry subsidised over CZK 24 million to an applicant who had not meet the essential criteria required by the Programme, that was the duty to derive at least 50 % of the annual profits from export sales of the project deliverables or follow-up products”, said president of SAO František Dohnal.
The auditing operation was included into the 2008 Audit Plan of the SAO under No. 08/07. Zdeněk Brandt, Member of the SAO Board, controlled the operation and drew up the audit conclusion as well.
Radka Burketová
Press Speaker
Supreme Audit Office