The SAO scrutinized funds earmarked for the EU's common migration and asylum policy
Press Release – June 25, 2012
The audit aimed at EU’s common migration and asylum policy and scrutinized whether the rules for providing financial support from the European Refugee Fund, the European Return Fund, the Eternal Frontiers Fund, and the European Integration Fund were abided by.
The SAO scrutinized whether the beneficiaries achieved the pre-set goals, met the monitoring criteria, observed obligatory indicators of the projects, and implemented the projects in compliance with the given rules. The auditors also checked whether the projects’ cost estimates had been kept and whether the projects had not been supported dually. The analytic accounting evidence related to projects, the eligibility of expenditure on projects, and the suppliers’ conformity to rules for public procurement were also examined.
When scrutinizing the beneficiaries, the SAO revealed violations of the Public Procurement Act, the eligibility rules, and other regulations. For example, the Ministry of Interior – the Administration of Refugee Centres violated public procurement rules when altered the quality requirements during the procedures. As a result, none of the submitted offers could match all the requirements. Yet, the Administration did not call off the tender and entered an agreement with the competitor who took second place in the assessment and offered a higher price. During a competition concerning vehicles procurement, the Administration defined technical parameters of the cars in such a way that only one provider in the Czech Republic could meet the requirements.
The results of the conducted audit indicated shortcomings that pertain in particular to reimbursement of non-eligible expenditures, which should not have been provided from the state budget or EU funds. The rate of shortcomings, which were related to non-eligibility of expenditures, made 6.7 % of the scrutinized financial resources.
The audit also scrutinized the management and control system’s settings and effectiveness. The system failed to verify whether the projects had been simultaneously funded from various EU programmes or in various programming periods. After examining key elements of the management and control system, auditors concluded that within the audited period, the system was only partially effective.
The auditing operation was performed from October 2011 to March 2012. Auditors scrutinized about one-fourth of project realized and finished within the period from 2009 to mid-2011. Audited bodies were the Ministry of Interior, the Administration of Refugee Centres, the City District Prague 12, Police College and Secondary Police School of the Ministry of the Interior in Holesov, META – the Association for Opportunities of Young Migrants, the City District Prague 2, and SOZE Brno. The auditing operation was included into 2011 Audit Plan of the SAO under No. 11/27. Marie Hošková, Member of the SAO Board, managed the operation and prepared the audit conclusion as well.
Communication Department
Supreme Audit Office