Management of the state property at the State Organisation Administration of the Railway Transportation Route
Press release on completion of the auditing operation No. 05/15
“Management of the state property at the State Organisation Administration of the Railway Transportation Route”
The auditing operation examined conditions creating for the commencement of activities and management of the state organization Administration of the Railway Transportation Route (hereinafter only “ARTR”) in connection with transformation of the state organization Czech Railways into the joint-stock company Czech Railways and ARTR. The audit was focused particularly on the area of liabilities and claims transferred to ARTR, on ARTR management of the directorate and building administration units operating activities, and on management of property, which was determined by law to settle up the transferred liabilities.
The auditing operation was managed by Mr. Jiří Adámek, Member of the SAO.
The audit found out, that the transformation process in audited activities was not well prepared and secured. Primarily, there no reliable overview existed considering the current status and structure in liabilities and claims passing to ARTR on the date of its establishment, i.e. 1.1.2003. ARTR obtained their preliminary list only in February 2003. The initial states had to have been under continuous correcting till May 2004, and the differences between recorded and actual state of liabilities and claims were ascertained still during the audit. In starting period, ARTR had not available funds to cover liabilities fallen due. Consequently ARTR paid for fines, penalties and charge delay more than CZK 1.5 billion in the years 2003 and 2004. In addition, the Czech Railways did not pay social security and health insurance contributions for its employees in the period closely before the transformation. The liabilities connected with this increased almost threefold and they were later transferred to ARTR in the amount of CZK 1.795 billion.
The transferred liabilities should have been covered by the state properties remaining after the transformation of the Czech Railways but third of this property has been unsatisfactorily maintained, heavily damaged and in the long-term not operated, thus it could not be a significant source to cover liabilities or deficits in the state budget resulting from impacts of the transformation of the state organization Czech Railways. Substantial resources to cover liabilities should be the government bonds in the amount of CZK 7 billion with due date of 2011, which ought to be issued on account of the state budget. In addition, the liabilities from the bank loans with the state guarantee, which were transferred to ARTR in the amount of CZK 38.9 billion, has been covered also from the state budget.