Audit at the Ministry of the Interior: accounting errors exceeded CZK 4,900 million
PRESS RELEASE on Audit No. 15/32 – July 25, 2016
The Supreme Audit Office (SAO) scrutinized 2014 final accounts of the Ministry of the Interior, namely the accounting and reporting of expenditures. Auditors examined the correctness and completeness of the data and found some potential risks within the system. Errors in the Ministry’s final accounts exceeded CZK 4,900 million. The Ministry made the most serious errors amounting to CZK 4,800 million when failed to report about long-term contingent liabilities related to existing contracts. These errors significantly influenced the data about future budgetary requirements. Auditors concluded that the Ministry had failed to keep correct and complete accounts. In case the Ministry does not correct their mistakes, the incorrect data will impact 2015 financial statements of the national budget.
At the Ministry of the Interior, auditors revealed systemic risks, for instance in the records of fixed assets. Other errors were made in the Ministry’s accounts of claims for the excise duty refunds from light heating oils. The claims were accounted for before having arisen as defined in the legislation. In addition, the Ministry wrongly reported in their final accounts about a liability, which incurred as a result of setting accounts between the Ministry’s own departments and was not an actual liability.
Errors at the Ministry of the Interior included wrong accounts of fixed assets, which were re-entered into their books, of subsidies sent to an allowance organisation for purchases of fixed assets, and liabilities, which arose from sick pensions. Some claims and liabilities were entered into wrong accounts. As late as in 2014, the Ministry reported about some claims and liabilities, which had occurred in the previous accounting periods.
Auditors concluded that the Ministry of the Interior violated budgetary regulations when missed the legal deadline for transferring CZK 401,000, which were obtained as an excise duty refund, to the State budget revenue account in 2014. The SAO notified the competent financial authorities about this violation of budgetary discipline.
Communication Department
Supreme Audit Office