PM Babiš says Supreme Audit Office should stick to mandate, stay out of politics

Prime Minister Andrej Babiš (ANO) has said his cabinet will ask the head of the Supreme Audit Office (NKÚ) to act within his authority and stay out of politics.

The move follows on the office’s issuance on Monday of its 2018 annual report in which the NKÚ took the state administration to task for failing to address societal changes fast enough in a number of areas.

These areas include digitisation, transport infrastructure, the simplification of tax reporting, energy conservation, and building low-income social housing.

The NKÚ is merely supposed to determine whether the government is acting within the law, not offer political commentary, Mr Babiš said.

He claimed no administration in modern Czech history has done as much as his in the areas of digitisation and infrastructure.

Author: Brian Kenety