The SAO audited projects for ecological disposal of the inutile ammunition
Press Release – February 5, 2009
Auditors from the Supreme Audit Office (SAO) performed an audit that focused on the inutile ammunition disposal projects, which were carried out by the Army of the Czech Republic from 2004 to 2007. In total, the Czech Army disposed 48,541,036 kilograms of the disused ammunition, which was certified by the Defence Standardisation, Codification and Government Quality Assurance Authority.
One of the audited bodies was VOP-026 Šternberk, a state-owned company established by the Ministry of Defence of the Czech Republic. The audit involved financial resources earmarked for the disposal, transfers, storage, and securing of the disposed ammunition.
In 2003, the Ministry of Defence marked out 38,805 tonnes of inutile ammunition (including unsalable, dangerous and expired ammunition) for ecological disposal, while 27,000 tones of ammunition were intended for selling out or making over, but 8,979 tonnes from these were also left for disposal in the end.
During the audited period, 208 storages were discharged, thus vacating 106,962 square metres of storage grounds. Out of the former 17 bases of ammunition supply, only 7 have continued in operation since 2007 and technical conditions of the discarded projectiles and missiles have not been inspected since 2008.
“The Ministry of Defence dropped the matter of ecological disposal of ammunition in the 2008 budget. More than 2,200 projectiles and missiles remain useless in the bases of supply as their disposal would cost CZK 85 million“, said František Dohnal, president of the SAO. In 2009, CZK 5 million were budgeted for the ecological disposal to resume.
The auditing operation was included into the 2008 Audit Plan of the SAO under No. 08/17. Ladislav Zeman, Member of the SAO Board, controlled the operation and drew up the audit report as well.
Radka Burketová
Press Speaker
Supreme Audit Office