Bratislava, April 8, 2020 – The subsidies provided by local governments for their development and improvement of the population quality of life went mainly to sports, less to social services or culture. Based on the audit of 45 municipalities, the Supreme Audit Office of the Slovak Republic states that in the last three years these municipalities have provided more than EUR 72 mil to its partners in the form of grants.

Half of this amount went to support the sports clubs activities. However, they are short of strategic documents that offer a clear view how financial support contributes to the development of a particular community and how it is possible to measure the real benefits for improving the people´s quality of life in a particular municipality. The distribution of subsidies is in several cases formal and when evaluating the benefits, usually only the description by the applicant or project description is monitored.

A common shortcoming highlighted by national auditors is the absence of targeted internal control, demonstration of the effectiveness and efficiency providing the public resources to the beneficiary.

The full text of the press release about this audit in Slovak language is available here. Use the Google icon in the top bar for automatic translation into the desired language.