Auditing operation No. 03/32
State Budget Funds for the activities of the State Technical Library
The auditing operation was included in the Annual Audit Plan of the Supreme Audit Office (hereinafter referred to as „SAO“) for the year 2003 under No. 03/32. The auditing operation was managed and audit conclusion drawn up by Mr. Josef Pohl, the Member of the SAO.
The aim of the audit was to examine the management of the State Budget funds spent in connection with the activities of the State Technical Library.
The audited period covered the years 2001 and 2002 as well as previous periods in case of relevant connections.
The audited bodies were the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (hereinafter referred to as „MEYS“) and the State Technical Library headquartered in Prague (hereinafter referred to as „STL“).
Deficiencies were ascertained during the SAO audit, particularly in the manner of securing and financing the construction of the new National Technical Library (hereinafter referred to as „NTL“) buildings and in the manner of financing the STL activities. The methodical management of the STL contributory organisation on the part of the MEYS was found insufficient.
- The beginning of the NTL construction has been continually stalled and the government resolution from 12 July 2000 has not been fulfilled. Funds for the realisation of the construction were not secured until the completion of the SAO audit. State Budget funds in the amount of about 9.5 million CZK were spent on preparatory work, the project, investment designs and the abolished public tender and can thus be considered (by the end of the audit) to be ineffectively and inefficiently spent funds. These funds should not have been spent without securing the funds for the realisation of the construction. From this amount the expenses for the failed commercial public tender for an investor-engineering activity in the amount of 143,342 CZK can then be considered to be uneconomically spent State Budget funds. The STL and the MEYS did not proceed in accordance with the regulations of the MF Principles when securing the investment action for the construction of the NTL. An investment design for the construction of the NTL as a whole was not approved and submitted to the MF on the part of the MEYS, and thus it was not possible to achieve a decision on the involvement of the State Budget in financing the action.
- By initiating the STL Project in the framework of a new method of financing the STL contributory organisation, the intention of the MEYS special financing of detached basic activities in STL activities was not fulfilled. The financing of the detached activities, i.e. the purchase of the book collection, expenses on international interlibrary services and expenses on the CESNET and the PASNET networks, was not only carried out from the STL project, but also from the fundamental activities and, to a lesser extent, from projects for science and research. On the other hand, expenses that were not directly related to the intentionally detached and departmentally monitored project expenses were debited to the STL project.
- During the audit of the STL’s bookkeeping were ascertained some partial deficiencies in the disconnection between the accounting books, incorrect accounting procedures (in the time differentiation of expenses and accounting to the appropriate period, corrections to the accounting records) and incorrect drawing of funding for the reproduction of property through the Property Reproduction Fund.