The Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs and the Ministry of the Interior provided more than CZK 600 million for the improvement of inter-municipal cooperation
Press release for the audit No. 16/32, 4th December 2017
The Supreme Audit Office focused on providing and drawing money to support the development of inter-municipal cooperation and the development of local partnerships between 2010 and 2016. Money to this area should strengthen cooperation in transport, education, social services, or the environment. The SAO examined how the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs and the Ministry of the Interior managed the distribution of subsidies and audited the procedure and the conditions for obtaining support by the Union of Towns and Municipalities and the Association of Local Authorities.
To strengthen the inter-municipal cooperation, the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs and the Ministry of the Interior divided CZK 619 million mostly from European funds into two similarly focused projects for the Union of Towns and Municipalities and the Association of Local Authorities, from the Operational Program Human Resources and Employment. Most of this were the wages and rewards of persons involved in projects, specifically CZK 586 million. A large number of strategic and methodological documents had been created for the needs of municipalities and local action groups, such as 258 strategies, 176 action plans and other documents.
The SAO found shortcomings as early as at the level of approval of these two projects. The Union of Towns and Municipalities presented a project of inter-municipal cooperation and justified its need only by the fact that the idea of cooperation among municipalities was supported by member municipalities. However, the specific interest in the project by the municipalities had not been backed up. The Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs approved the support of CZK 594 million for the first project. One of the main reasons for this approval was to improve the use of European funds at the end of the programming period 2007-2013. For the second project, the Association of Local Authorities submitted an analysis of necessity which was not objective sufficiently – it was based on the answers of a small number of municipalities; these municipalities could not suggest their own themes and needs. Nevertheless, the Ministry of the Interior approved this project for support amounting to CZK 25 million.
Both projects were similarly focused and both the Union of Towns and Municipalities and the Association of Local Authorities created in many cases strategies and methodologies for the same territory. In some cases, the same people worked on the projects, which was reflected in the final form of some documents. With a selected sample of 20 strategies, the auditors found the same parts of texts and other identical elements in nine of them.
Auditors also focused on the specific outputs that came out of the money - especially on strategies, methodologies, and other documents. These proved to be mostly an analysis or a summary of the current situation; a new or innovative approach to the existing cooperation of the municipalities did not follow. There is no indication of possible future progress in mutual cooperation among municipalities.
Another problem is also how municipalities will use these documents. The SAO carried out a questionnaire survey on a selected sample of municipalities. Nearly half of respondents answered that they did not consider the documents to be beneficial or did not know neither use them.
Communication department
Supreme Audit Office