Czech Republic government to improve procurement efficiency

5 Jun 14
An audit of selected government ministries in the Czech Republic has revealed that there is potential to save more than 227m Czech koruna (£6.7m) through immediate procurement improvements.

By Vivienne Russell | 5 June 2014

An audit of selected government ministries in the Czech Republic has revealed that there is potential to save more than 227m Czech koruna (£6.7m) through immediate procurement improvements.

The review of financial management at the ministries of finance, justice, defence, regional development, transport and environment found they were often purchasing identical goods, but the prices could vary by as much as 300%.

Publishing the results of the review, finance minister Andrej Babis said: ‘We uncovered an immediate saving of public funds amounting to nearly a [CZK] quarter billion.’

Gradually improving management and efficiency in government departments and centralising purchasing and contract management would deliver billions more, he added, as the review also found errors including payments to companies that were no longer trading. In addition, invoices worth a total of CZK 16bn (£472m) were found for purchases where there was no record of a tender process.

Given what it called the ‘seriousness’ of the findings, the Czech finance ministry said it was preparing a set of legislative and operational measures to tackle the issues. These include new laws on financial control and accounting and extension of the Treasury’s integrated information system.

 

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