Unclear stipulations make it impossible to assess whether 2011 closing account of the Ministry of Transport was in compliance with the regulations
Press Release – February 25, 2013
The Supreme Audit Office (SAO) focused on the Ministry of Transport and their 2011 closing account. The audit aimed at the closing account’s compliance with the relevant regulations. Auditors concluded that the Ministry had failed to keep proper and conclusive accounts as the records of intangible assets were incomplete and the Ministry had skipped the regular inventorying. As for the accounting, the SAO detected inaccuracies in the total amount of CZK 46 million, which for instance included illegitimate impairments of claims.
The SAO finds it impossible to assess whether the financial statements and financial reports of the year 2011 give a true and fair view of the assets and liabilities of the Ministry as the relevant regulations were stipulated unclearly and equivocally. Auditors could not evaluate the correctness of 34.7 % of assets, 16 % of liabilities, 42.7 % of costs, and 96.9 % of revenues. The same problem has already been detected by the SAO during other audit operations.
In 2010, accounting regulations applicable for the accounting units were significantly revised and the regulations were amended already in 2011. The equivocal stipulations led to various interpretations. “In reality, the same financial operation can be recorded by individual ministries in different ways. In case individual organisational units of the state keep accounts according to various interpretations of relevant regulations, their closing accounts may be considerably different and we are trying to compare incomparable things,” said Daniel Reisiegel, Member of the SAO Board, who managed the auditing operation.
It was impossible to evaluate several parts of the closing account as the auditors were not provided with sufficient background information for verification of the records. For example, auditors could not verify the appreciations of the economical software, which the Ministry had procured for the total amount of CZK 1,400 million. The Ministry estimated the software’s lifespan for 30 years and correspondingly planned its appreciations but could not provide documents, which would make a basis for such estimation. The SAO found the estimate inadequate.
For further details about the auditing operation No. 12/14 (in Czech only), see the following link: http://www.nku.cz/assets/media/informace-12-14.pdf (pdf 200 kB).
Communication Department
Supreme Audit Office