The Czech Customs Administration enforces judicial claims more effectively than the courts previously did. However, this has not led to an increase in the use of monetary penalties
PRESS RELEASE ON AUDIT NO 24/31 – 19 January 2025
The courts were unsuccessful in enforcing judicial claims, which include e.g. monetary penalties, court fees, and fines. Between 2021 and 2023, the courts enforced, on average, only eight per cent of the total volume of judicial claims. In 2024, responsibility for their enforcement was transferred from the courts to the Czech Customs Administration (CCA). Among other objectives, the Government expected this step to lead to greater use of monetary penalties instead of short-term custodial sentences and, consequently, to a reduction in the prison population. As shown by the audit conducted by the Supreme Audit Office (SAO), this measure did not result in an increase in the number of monetary penalties. On the contrary, in 2024 the courts imposed almost 490 fewer monetary penalties than in the preceding year. Nevertheless, the customs authorities performed better in enforcement than the courts had previously done. They enforced judicial claims more efficiently, within a shorter time frame, and the success rate of enforcement gradually increased over the course of 2024.
The transfer of competence from the courts to the CCA also resulted in reduced expenditure. While the courts spent a total of CZK 417 million between 2021 and 2023 on the salaries of employees involved in the enforcement of claims (an average of CZK 139 million per year), the CCA spent approximately CZK 94 million on staff salaries related to enforcement activities in 2024. This represents a reduction of CZK 45 million compared with the average annual expenditure of the courts in the aforementioned period.
The enforcement of monetary penalties was positively influenced by the greater activity of the customs authorities compared with that of the courts. For example, the SAO compared the approach of the Plzeň-město District Court and the Customs Office for the South Moravian Region in enforcing nine long-outstanding monetary penalties. Whereas the court recovered partial payments in four out of nine cases, amounting to only one quarter of the total sum of CZK 103,000, the customs office to which these nine claims were transferred recovered the full amount in five cases. In the remaining four cases, the monetary penalty was converted into a custodial sentence. Enforcement by the court took, on average, one and three-quarters of a year, whereas the customs officers completed the process in less than five months.
The General Directorate of Customs did not need to introduce new IT systems in connection with the transfer of enforcement competence but instead modified the existing ones, at a cost of CZK 2.2 million. Through the use of information and communication technologies, the CCA has achieved a high level of digitalisation and automation of procedures for the enforcement of judicial claims. The use of automated remote access to nearly all registers that offer this option significantly reduces administrative burdens and increases the effectiveness of enforcing the judicial claims transferred to the CCA.
The SAO found that the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), in its capacity as the central state administration body, did not act in accordance with the Act on Courts and Judges during the audited period when it failed to verify whether the courts had acted in compliance with the legal regulations and methodological procedures set by the MoJ itself in the administration of court fees and the enforcement of judicial claims. As a result, the MoJ was unable to verify whether the courts, as organisational units of the state, monitored the timely and proper fulfilment of debtors’ obligations.
Communication Department
Supreme Audit Office