A supervision, which was not a

Over the years, has been one of the post subsidiary post car to high subsidies. And also the second-largest Swiss railway company BLS has bagged a lot of Federal money. These two cases, as different as they may be, have one thing in Common: The supervision of post-car and BLS is located in the Federal office of transport .

shows How a report from the auditor, BDO, has given it in the Federal office, a number of failures, for example in the organization of the control of the transport company. The report, transport Minister Doris Leuthard, after the Blow of the post-car-scandal in the order. She wanted to know what was going on in the authority slate. BDO delivered the report on may 19. December 2018, the Federal government kept it secret.

Lack of expertise, lack of independence

Now here he is, and shows glaring weaknesses. The "design of the validation process in the subsidised regional services, the effectiveness and appropriateness of the audit procedures and, in particular, the audit depth" were "insufficient", it means there is, for example. Of 34 individual points which have been tested, according to the report, just seven no action is required. In the case of eight would have to be improved, according to BDO. The rest of the examiner also noted a need for optimization.

In the report it is stated that the employees of the Federal office are partly to be close to the transport companies in it, such as because the companies are in charge of many years on-the-spot work, and a common lunch stop. Thus, the independence can not be given at least appear to. In particular, it could lead to a conflict of interest that the same passenger transport services ordered, and then the bills controlled.

"Yes, we have, in hindsight, too long looked the other way."Peter Füglistaler, Director Federal office of transport

knowledge is another point of criticism: the staff of The Federal office, which examined the accounts of the transport company, missing the tray. The majority of the Competent have a business education, a more in-depth auditor knowledge, however, does not exist. More still: "The System is currently designed so that even less experienced people can make approvals." This will go at the expense of the audit depth and quality. It is also in the report: "At the time of invoice approval, it is not a test in the strict sense, but in the best case, a Controlling."

This points out: The Federal office for transport a lot of shortcomings. Now the office wants to change something. So, in the future, the allocation of subsidies and the control should be separated. Eight additional Posts to ensure that the company can in-depth are controlled. The Problem: In the past, the audit has not scraped by the office only on the surface. The today usual annual Invoice approval should not therefore be carried out in this Form. The post car scandal had also shown that the role of the external auditors was not clarified. The audit company KPMG are not held responsible to check the correct use of subsidies. The Federal office now clarifies that the external auditors of transport need to check the company, whether the Federal funds are being used correctly according to the subsidy law.

Director of the Federal office of transport, Peter Füglistaler. Photo: Keystone

service Director Peter Füglistaler admits: "Yes, we have been looking the other way, in hindsight, too long." He justified this with the lack of resources. "There is already a connection between the attitude of the policy that we should employ fewer civil servants, and the expectation that we should always see everything right away."

expense is in a reasonable frame

politicians from the left keep to the right to the measures of the Federal office welcome. Personnel consequences none of the calls. The President of the national Council's traffic Commission, the SP representative Edith Graf-Litscher, considers the approach of the Federal office as appropriate. After the post car scandal, it was important that it had reviewed its surveillance system.

the need for discussion, there seems to be a point: One must be careful not to that the expense for the company is too big, says CVP-transport policy-makers, Martin Candinas. This point will be talked about in the in the transport Commission, says FDP national councillor Kurt Fluri. As is always the case, individual cases would have to bear all the consequences, what are the small transport company limited.

(editing Tamedia)

Created: 06.05.2019, 22:59 PM