"We understand the desire of the Ministry of Agriculture to follow the Green Deal, but the audit findings show that in this case the Green Deal was rather used as a cover for unjustified and wasteful use of state budget funds," said Inga Vilka, Member of the Council of the State Audit Office.
The audit concluded that the solution chosen by the Procurement Commission for electric cars - to install only high power (more than 22 kW) electric car chargers - is not in line with the national policy planning documents and also with the practice of experts in the field. For example, public corporations involved in charging electric cars install conventional chargers for their own use.
The audit also found that the procurement restricted competition by imposing unreasonably high requirements on tenderers which were disproportionate to the subject matter of the procurement.
The advantages created by the requirements of the procurement enabled a single tenderer to offer relatively high prices for both the charging equipment and the materials and works, for which a general agreement was accordingly concluded. The auditors estimate the surcharge of the charging equipment at around €600,000.
In 2022, the Ministry of Agriculture paid the utility €2.4 million, or around 80% of the funds allocated, but it was not until autumn 2023 that the first charging points were put into operation, and not until July 2024 that the network with all 52 charging stations was completed.
As of mid-August 2024, more than half of the charging stations that have been built are still unused, with only 15 locations having been recharged. Only a few charging points have the grid capacity to run the installed equipment at full capacity, and only one charging point has the charging equipment configured for maximum capacity.
The Food and Veterinary Service is almost the only user of the charging stations (92% of all charging).
By following the practice of other state-owned companies and installing conventional chargers for its own use, the Ministry of Agriculture could have saved at least €2.7 million in state budget funds. In the auditors' opinion, by installing conventional capacity equipment and spending approximately EUR 278,000, the budget could have been saved or up to 60 new electric cars could have been purchased with these funds.
The State Audit Office will inform the competent institutions about the non-compliance with the requirements of the legislation and uneconomical use of state budget funds in the Ministry of Agriculture so that they can assess the responsibility of the officials and employees of the Ministry.
