The SAO audited the national registers system: one register partially inoperative due to late implementation of related projects
PRESS RELEASE on Audit No. 13/12 – January 13, 2014
The Supreme Audit Office scrutinized preparation, development, operation, and administration processes related to the implementation of the national registers information system and aimed specifically at two registers – the register of inhabitants and the register of rights and responsibilities of public authorities – which are supervised by the Ministry of the Interior. By mid-2013, the National Registers Authority, which operates the registers, and the Ministry of the Interior spent the total amount of CZK 1,600 million on the audited registers. Auditors scrutinized expenses in the amount of CZK 1,550 million.
National registers were supposed to launch on July 1, 2011. In spite the Parliament issued an amendment to the law, which postponed the term by 1 year, the projects were delayed on average by 1.5–4.5 months. Among other reasons of delays were supplements to tendering documentations, which were issued by the Ministry of Interior that also provided additional information to the tenderers after the due date. Another reason of delays was a ruling issued by the Office for the Protection of Competition, which annulled the tender for projects related to the implementation of the register of inhabitants and the register of rights and responsibilities of public authorities. When the auditing operation ended, three of the audited registers had already been working but the register of rights and responsibilities of public authorities did not fulfil all its duties because it was unable to make use of the reference data on legal regulations in the eSbírka project or use the information serving to optimise public administration processes from the Public Administration Process Modelling project, as these projects had not been completed.
According to the original plan, the National Registers Authority’s 29 employees only had to operate the information system of national registers. Since mid-2012, the National Registers Authority has been operating both the register of inhabitants and the register of rights and responsibilities of public authorities. That’s why the Ministry was asked to add 20 more employees to the staff in 2012, but the Ministry refused. The National Registers Authority hired external suppliers to secure some activities. The number of employees was increased by 10 as late as in September 2013.
The SAO discovered that the Ministry made use of advisory services during the tenders, but these services did not result in the problem-free course of these public contracts. When utilising legal services, the Ministry acted uneconomically, as it paid CZK 1.2 million more to a law firm than agreed and did not have an agreement supporting this additional expenditure. By doing so, it breached budgetary discipline and as a result a fine in the amount of almost CZK 2 million was imposed by the tax office in 2012. Furthermore, in 2010, the Ministry used legal services for CZK 13.7 million without concluding a written agreement with the law firm in question. If the Ministry paid the demanded fee, it would have breached budgetary discipline and used state budget resources uneconomically.
For further details about auditing operation No. 13/12 (in Czech only), see the following link: http://www.nku.cz/assets/media/informace-13-12.pdf.
Communication Department
Supreme Audit Office