Costs of social services differed in hundreds of thousand
Press Release – December 11, 2009
From January to August 2009, auditors from the Supreme Audit Office (SAO) performed an audit that focused on subsidies to social services of a regional nature. The audit revealed that Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs had failed to assess the economy of the benefit recipients within the period from 2007 to 2008.
The audit revealed that the Ministry had failed to perform sufficient analysis of the impact that implementation of Act No. 108/2006 Coll., on social services, would have on public budgets. In the explanatory memorandum accompanying the draft of this Act the Ministry reckoned with the state budget expenditure under the audited programme in 2007 and 2008 being CZK 5.9 million lower and in the case of care contributions CZK 17.1 million lower.
Auditors revealed that there were significant cost differences with the same type of stays, which the Ministry had not analyzed. In various social service institutions, amounts for beds per a year differed in hundred of thousands. At the same time, the Ministry failed to create a system for collecting information about actual costs, sources of financing, capacity, and the numbers of employees and users of social services; it consequently has had no basis on which to assess the economy of the state budget expenditure in the audited programme.
“The regional authorities were obliged to provide assistance towards the costs in 2007. In 2007 and 2008, Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs partially refunded the costs form its state budget chapter and referred to agreements, which they had contracted in order to ensure the endowment proceedings in the social services field. Such a practice violated legal regulations“, said president of the SAO František Dohnal.
The endowment procedure was partially transferred from the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs to regional administration by the Social Services Act. Regional authorities received applications, provided their assessments, and suggested the amounts of endowment. However, such a change has not cut back the administration intensity as some of the proceedings take place both at regional level and at the Ministry as well.
The auditing operation was included into 2003 Audit Plan of the SAO under No. 09/03. Marie Hošková, Member of the SAO Board, controlled the operation and prepared the audit conclusion as well.
Bc. Radka Burketová
Press Speaker
Supreme Audit Office