The continuous compounding of support of the expansion of industrial zones found deficient and unconvincing
Press Release – June 18, 2009
Auditors from the Supreme Audit Office (SAO) performed an audit of the funds utilized for investments in industrial zones and for regeneration of the territories, buildings and facilities from 2004 to 2008. Among the audited bodies were the Investment and Business Development Agency – CzechInvest, and several grant recipients including the Statutory City of Brno, the municipality of Kolín, Moravian-Silesian Region, and the ŠKODA HOLDING, Inc.
“The Ministry of Industry has not provided for a convincing assessment of the related expenses or an enumeration of the Project’s benefits”, said president of the SAO František Dohnal.
From 1998 to 2007, CzechInvest invested in 103 industrial zones with the area of 3 129 hectares, thus creating 88 228 vacancies and utilizing CZK 192 milliard. The Agency referred that the state budget funds amounting to CZK 8.884 milliard from were utilized on these zones’ support.
“The impact assessment submitted by the CzechInvest lacked the necessary predicative standards as CzechInvest based it on unverified and inexact data and did not bound the investors to check the data’s validity. Auditors concluded that the continuous compounding of investments in industrial zones supported from national programmes of the Ministry and the Agency from 2004 to 2008 was deficient and unconvincing. The programme documentations contained insufficiencies and errors in calculation“, said president Dohnal.
The insufficiencies followed the fact, that the Ministry and CzechInvest failed to implement the remedial measures, which had the Ministry planned and stipulated in their 2004 opinion on the audit conclusion of the audit operation No. 03/31 as contained in the Government documents. The audit No. 03/31 examined the assessment of the declared benefits of the programme of support for the development of industrial zones and the programme’s efficiency.
The auditing operation was included into the 2008 Audit Plan of the SAO under No. 08/29. Zdeněk Brandt, Member of the SAO Board, controlled the operation and prepared the audit conclusion as well.
Radka Burketová
Press Speaker
Supreme Audit Office