Fines & penalties collected by customs annually amount to CZK 3,000 million; customs are inconsistent and do not have background data in due time
PRESS RELEASE on Audit No. 13/26 – May 26, 2014
The Supreme Audit Office (SAO) performed an audit of fines imposed by administration authorities and transferred for recovery to customs authorities (so-called "shared administration") within years 2011 and 2012. The transformation of claims’ recovery to the customs was applied as the imposing authorities were not allowed by law to collect the amounts.
Annually, there were over 500,000 cases and the total demanded sum amounted to CZK 3,000 million. The biggest part of the demanded amounts account for penalties under CZK 2,000, which were not paid immediately. For example, customs administered 639,000 cases in the total amount of CZK 2,900 million and were successful in 457,000 cases collecting CZK 2,600 million in 2011. However, some 17,000 cases with the total amount of CZK 30 million were written off because the claims were uncollectible.
Auditors selected 206 cases and verified the collection processes carried by the customs. In the audited cases, the total claimed amounts of penalties and debts made CZK 23.9 million, out of which the customs successfully collected only CZK 5.2 million. Namely with foreigners it is hard to collect debts. Various customs offices take individual approaches to the problem: For example, customs in the Pilsen Region verified amounts on the foreigners’ bank accounts, while customs in the Ústí na Labem Region only notified the foreigners about the penalties in writing and immediately wrote off the claims as uncollectible.
Auditors also aimed at collection of debts, which were more than three months overdue. In over one third of 134 scrutinized cases, the customs failed to use all possibilities for successful collection. For example, customs in the Pilsen Region did not look up for available data in the cadastre concerning assets, which belonged to a company that owed nearly CZK 1 million. The customs office waited for two years before appealing for sequestration.
On the other hand, auditors recognized that customs get the necessary information from the authorities that imposed penalties with significant delays: at 73 % of cases selected for the auditing, more than 30 days passed before the customs were informed and in some unexceptional cases the delays took longer than two years. Municipalities demanded from customs to collect hardly collectible financial claims or minor debts in the amount of only a few hundred crowns.
Communication Department
Supreme Audit Office