SAO audited financial resources earmarked for road construction projects
Press Release – December 8, 2010
From December 2009 to June 2010, auditors from the Supreme Audit Office (SAO) were performing audit No. 09/27 and aimed at selection and development of programmes that had been funded from annual budgets of the State Fund for Transport Infrastructure within the period from 2008 to 2010. Auditors scrutinized the implementation of the corrective measures that had resulted from previous audit operations No. 06/36 and 07/04. The audit conclusion draws attention to many lingering insufficiencies.
Among the audited bodies were Ministry of Transport, the State Fund for Transport Infrastructure (SFDI), and the Road and Motorway Directorate of the Czech Republic together with its organisational units including the divisions in Prague and Brno, and regional administration offices in České Budějovice, Chomutov, Karlovy Vary, Olomouc, Pardubice and Praha.
“The Ministry of Transport disobeyed the governmental decree from April 2006 when failed to complete the GEPARDI Plan (General Plan for the Transport Infrastructure Development). A fundamental document that would set the order of construction works according to the public demands and the given funding possibilities. The Ministry let the Road and Motorway Directorate to manage the preparation works and did not influence the adoption processes of the investment projects. Financial conditions, terms or material criteria of the projects’ development works were not predefined“, said president of the SAO František Dohnal.
Auditors ruled out the possibility of efficient and economical expenditures pointing out to the insufficient coordination of the development projects (which were understood to be “global” budget items until the State Fund for Transport Infrastructure /SFDI/ included the projects into its budget) and funding provisions of the projects’ realization works. The state of preparation works do not guarantee that the projects will be realized on schedule and in keeping with the funding plans. In August 2009, the Road and Motorway Directorate revised investment plans of 958 projects, which had already been approved by the Ministry of Transport and realized that 246 projects had not been started.
“The Ministry of Transport did not show the key criteria for including projects into the transport infrastructure development schedule for the period 2008–2013. Many projects (of various road works) were included without preliminary analyses of available financial resources, which led to the contemporary situation when it is not possible to realize all projects in keeping with the time schedule. Road spaces that are under construction will claim budget means in the future periods. For example, unsettled ownership relations have caused serious realization delays of running stages of road constructions“, said Dohnal.
The SFDI amended the budget with transfers and budgetary provisions and loosely stated the reasons for such alterations. In many cases the reasoning was inconsistent and contained factual mistakes. These budgetary modifications caused significant differences in the budget structure that had been previously enacted.
“Auditors revealed that two thirds of tenders (worth CZK 62.8 milliard) were realized from a small group of contractors in the period 2008–2009. In case of 46 tenders (worth CZK 13.2 milliard), there were only two competitors or even just one“, said Dohnal.
The audit operation was included into 2009 Audit Plan of the SAO. Antonín Macháček, Member of the SAO Board, controlled the audit operation and prepared the audit conclusion as well.
Mgr. Bc. Radka Burketová
Press Speaker
Supreme Audit Office