SAO audits in 2025: results often do not justify the high investments

PRESS RELEASE ON THE SAO'S 2025 ANNUAL REPORT – 30 March 2026


Despite high investments, the state has failed to modernise key areas of its operations. The digitalisation of public administration often merely transfers complex processes to an online environment without truly simplifying them. While the state is building new highways, it has not implemented effective tools to mitigate the damage caused primarily by overloaded freight traffic. Even in the area of security, simply increasing spending is not enough—the military lags behind in both training and modernisation, and the Ministry of the Interior (MoI) has long been unable to create a functional system for protecting soft targets. And although the state has set a goal to rank among Europe’s so-called innovation leaders by 2030, it still remains below average. This is discussed in the SAO’s 2025 Annual Report, published today.

Last year, the SAO completed a total of 32 audits. It examined state assets and funds totalling more than CZK 96 billion across 142 entities. “The impact of the SAO’s audits lies primarily in how the audited organisations work with their results. Audits are intended to help make informed and well-founded decisions. They are an opportunity to learn from one’s own mistakes, not just to formally check off corrective measures,” said SAO President Miloslav Kala.

He added, however, that instead of engaging in self-reflection, institutions often react negatively to audit findings, downplay the SAO’s conclusions, or question the auditors’ expertise. “We are often accused of undermining public trust in the state, of bias, of failing to understand the complexity of the issues, and of selecting an inappropriate audit sample,” said Miloslav Kala. However, SAO audits repeatedly show that measures intended to make state operations cheaper and more efficient actually result in the same agenda becoming even more expensive and incurring additional costs. The SAO’s findings repeatedly confirm that the goals set are not being met; public finance administrators often settle for merely fulfilling formal requirements and frequently turn a blind eye to an uneconomical conduct.

For example, the e-Legislativa and e-Sbírka projects to digitalise legislation (Audit No 24/04) have been extended from the original three years to nine, and their budget has nearly doubled—rising from 482 million to more than 900 million crowns. Because the state was unable to create regulations digitally, it had to enter new laws into the system manually. In 2023 alone, this process cost 23.5 million crowns, which was more than double what the state had previously paid for the paper publication of laws.

The goal of introducing weight checks on Czech highways and A-Class roads (Audit No 24/11) was to remove overloaded trucks from our roads, as they damage infrastructure and increase repair costs. However, this system—for which the state paid CZK 112 million between 2019 and 2024—is failing. On average, the scales were out of service more than 60% of the time, and actual fines amounted to only a few percent. And what is the Ministry of Transport’s response? It plans to purchase additional high-speed scales. Furthermore, it has abolished fines for axle overloads—which cause the most damage—thereby formally reducing the number of violations by 98%. However, this has not solved the problem. Overloaded trucks continue to destroy Czech roads.

The issue of defence and security is currently of great relevance. Audit No 24/12 revealed that the training base of the Czech Armed Forces (CAF) has long failed to meet current needs. Although the Ministry of Defence invested nearly CZK 1.8 billion in its modernisation between 2019 and 2024, frequent changes or cancellations of investments have led to increased operating costs for outdated facilities. The CAF also lacks sufficient modern simulators and training devices, which limits the effectiveness of training. Because a driver training centre was not built, the army was forced to use civilian driving schools. In Audit No 24/33, the SAO reiterated that even after eight years, the MoI had not established a functioning national system for the protection of soft targets.

Although the state has set a goal of becoming one of Europe’s so-called innovation leaders by 2030, the Czech Republic still remains below the average. Despite the fact that the state supported research, development, and innovation through the Czech Science Foundation and the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic with nearly CZK 30 billion between 2021 and 2023, the results do not reflect this (Audit No 24/17). The number of patents has been declining over the long term; while 113 were filed in 2019, that number dropped to just 65 in 2023. The citation rate of basic research results does not even reach half the European average. Furthermore, financial support for basic research often does not target strategic areas and does not contribute sufficiently to addressing significant economic and societal challenges.

The SAO’s findings show that the problem often lies not merely in individual errors, but in the very structure of the public administration system itself. Success is typically measured by the formal completion of steps and the spending of allocated funds, rather than by whether the activities of state institutions make sense and benefit citizens. “The ability to recognise in time that the chosen approach is not leading to the expected goal, and subsequently to reevaluate it or change course, requires tremendous courage. Without a genuine change in approach, however, the same mistakes are repeated—only at a higher cost,” added Miloslav Kala.

Communication Department
Supreme Audit Office

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