Management of the state property by the Office of the Government Representation in Property Affairs
Auditing operation No. 05/01
The auditing operation was included in the Annual Audit Plan of the Supreme Audit Office (hereinafter referred to as “SAO”) for the year 2005 under No. 05/01. The auditing operation was managed and the audit conclusion drawn up by Mrs. Marie Hošková, the Member of the SAO.
The aim of the auditing operation was to examine procedures of the state property acquisition and administration including its rental and sale.
The audited period covered the years 2003 and 2004 as well as previous or following periods in certain cases of relevant connections.
The audited bodies were the Ministry of Finance (hereinafter referred to as “MF”) and the Office of the Government Representation in Property Affairs (hereinafter referred to as “OGRPA”).
The MF gives so called permit clauses to property transfer agreements on realties, flats, and non-residential rooms. According to the State Property Act, these agreements are valid only with the MF’s permit clause. The MF has given its permit clause in sporadic cases with delay up to three years after the agreement’s delivery to the MF. Such practice might incur additional expenditures related to the property administration; possibly, a buyer could back out of the contract.
The OGRPA administrating the state property did not follow decree No. 62/2001 Coll., when it failed to make a stock list of the property files or to complete lists of stocks with all necessary details, e.g. there such items were lacking as property values, receivables by debtors, commitments by creditors etc.
The OGRPA repeatedly failed to adhere the Act on Accountancy, when it not always recorded transactions with the property, of what it was competent to administer, and vice versa, it made accounting records related to property, of what was competent another authority, e. g. considering landed estates, which had been already transferred to the Land Fund of the Czech Republic. The OGRPA booked some transactions with delay of up to nine months. Other deficiencies were ascertained concerning the stock lists of properties recorded in bookkeeping.
Similar deficiencies in property management were ascertained also at all organizational units of the OGRPA, whether they concerned properties documented in operational files or properties recorded in bookkeeping.
The audit further highlighted that the transfer of the state property including property rights, receivables and liabilities from the district offices was not transparent. These deficiencies were also pointed by the audit operation No. 03/03 – Dealing with the property, rights, and liabilities of the Czech Republic in connection with cancellation of district offices. The OGRPA still handles irregularities. Properties, which were not found or otherwise reconciled, are kept in a separate account No. 77. So far it remains as the OGRPA task to seek out all properties, and there it is possible to expect even writing off a part of them from bookkeeping. There it is inevitable for resolution of above-mentioned difficulties that the OGRPA must consistently co-operate with the MF.