Ministry of Labour assigned grants disregarding the receivers´ inadequacies
Press Release – April 15, 2008
An audit operation conducted by the Supreme Audit Office (SAO) focused on realization of the "Programme for social prevention and prevention of delinquency", which was funded with over CZK 650 million in 2005 and 2006. The money were used for 1 150 projects realized by towns and non-profit organizations, which aimed at prevention of delinquency among children, juveniles, and citizens that are tasked with difficult state of affairs.
The audited period extended from 2005 to 2006 and included associated data from the previous time. The audited bodies were (among others) Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (MoLSA), Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Finance; and the corporate towns of Brno, Děčín, Havířov, Ostrava, Plzeň, and Ústí nad Labem.
"A few times, MoLSA granted organizations that had not apply for the grants in the first place, putting them under obligations of keeping the aim of the projects and booking properly, although they were not actually concerned in the realization processes of the projects. This way, the grant receivers did not answer for the state financial resources or were liable for the MoLSA's audits, " said František Dohnal, president of the SAO.
With some projects, the organizations received grants both from MoLSA and the employment offices. When summarizing the grants, we get much larger amount of money then the settled limits of the state budget financial participation, which were stated by the grant application decisions.
"The auditors found out that the given limits of the participation from the state budget was violated with more than CZK 3 million. At the same time, MoLSA and Ministry of Interior granted CZK 846 400 to several non-governmental organizations, in spite the applicants stated in the forms that they apply for grants at several national institutions. Both ministries granted about CZK 10 million for 12 projects that had also been subsidized by other ministries in 2005 and 2006, said Dohnal.
The auditing operation was included into the SAO 2007 Audit Plan under No. 07/18. Rudolf Němeček, Member of the SAO Board, controlled the operation and drew up the audit report as well.
Radka Burketová
Press Speaker
Supreme Audit Office