Errors found in 2013 final accounts of the Labour Office
PRESS RELEASE on Audit No. 14/18– March 2, 2015
The Supreme Audit Office (SAO) carried out an audit of the Labour Office of the Czech Republic and its financial statements and final annual accounts for the year 2013. Auditors revealed errors in the total amount of CZK 37,600 million. The worst error representing two thirds of the amount was caused by the fact that the Labour Office chose wrong accounts for reporting about corrections of returns from previous accounting periods. The correction was necessary because a claim and the related revenue amounting to CZK 230,000 had been incorrectly accounted for in the amount of CZK 23,000 million.
Auditors revealed that the Labour Office’s cash flows statements included accounting operations, which should have been recorded elsewhere. In the notes to the annual financial statements, the Labour Office failed to inform about the right amounts of payables in the area of social security insurance, unemployment contribution and public health-care insurance. The Office wrongly recorded the amount of these payables as CZK 100 million but the actual account balance was zero in the end of 2013. Errors were also found in the items recorded in the off-balance sheet books and the Office failed to inform about the accounting methods and omitted several related as well as explaining facts about individual sections and items of the final statements. These mistakes influenced the correctness and completeness of the Labour Office’s 2013 final statements and that is why the SAO exercised a qualification.
On the other hand, the Labour Office did not make cardinal mistakes in the books recording benefits payable, which represent essential parts of the audited final statements. That is why the SAO concluded that 2013 financial statements of the Labour Office gave – with the exception of errors in the balance sheet and cash flow statements and with the exception of the notes to the annual accounts – a true and fair view of the financial position and accounting operations of the Labour Office during the given accounting period.
Auditors also revealed that the Office violated budgetary regulations when failed to transfer refunds of provided subsidies’ overpayments in the amount of CZK 14 million back into the State budget in time. The Office violated the act on the State property when failed to make timely requests for receivables in foreign countries, and as a result the claims were lost.
Communication Department
Supreme Audit Office