Ministry of Transport oddly transferred CZK 5,000 million to the State Transport Infrastructure Fund affecting 2012 and 2013 State budget deficits
PRESS RELEASE on Audit No. 13/39 – October 13, 2014
The Supreme Audit Office (SAO) scrutinized whether the Ministry of Transport proceeded in line with relevant legislative regulations while preparing the final account, closing accounts, and financial statements for the year 2013.
The found irregularities do not have a material impact on the judgment or decisions of users of financial statements. However, the SAO could not comment on the correctness of the data in the financial statements relating to transfers from the European funds because of the ambiguity of financial regulations. Also, the auditors were unable to express their opinion on the correctness of the financial statements, because there was no sufficient and appropriate evidence to prove some data contained in the financial statements. For these reasons, the SAO did not express any opinion on the reliability of the financial statements of the Ministry of Transport in 2013.
The SAO criticized the non-standard transfer of CZK 5,000 million from the Operational Programme Transport to the account of the State Transport Infrastructure Fund. This transfer was made at the request of the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Transport carried it out in the end of 2012. The whole process (submission of applications, financial check-ups, and the transfer) took only two working days. The Ministry of Transport explained that the transfer was carried out in order to „optimize financial operations of 2012 State Budget and manage the liquidity of the State“. The State Transport Infrastructure Fund transferred the amount back to the Ministry of Transport on February 13, 2013. The SAO pointed out that the said financial operation not only impacted economic results of the Ministry of Transport, but also affected the State Budget deficit in 2012 and (with respect to the refund) also in 2013.
The auditors found a number of irregularities while scrutinizing the Ministry’s IT and software management. The Ministry failed to find assets worth tens of millions CZK when taking the inventory for the years 2011–2013. Furthermore, the inventory of IT was not taken by competent employees. In 2013, the Ministry also failed to keep records of licences to their software applications.
Communication Department
Supreme Audit Office