Ladem lies, according to inspectors, military properties worth 6.5 billion

Prague - The Army's properties worth approximately 6.5 billion crowns are lying idle, and the state spent only 32 million on their management last year. This is a result of an audit published today by the Supreme Audit Office (NKÚ). The Army retains completely unused accommodations, even though the Ministry of Defense proposed years ago to sell dozens of these facilities. The Ministry of Defense and the Army's statement is being investigated by ČTK. The Ministry and the Army oversee a total of 32,000 properties worth 62 billion.

NKÚ reviewed the management of the Army's real estate assets and their administration for the years 2015 to 2017. "The audit showed that the volume of properties managed by the Ministry of Defense does not correspond to the needs of the Army and unnecessarily burdens the state budget," said NKÚ spokesman Václav Kešner. According to him, many of the idle properties were no longer used by the Army since before 2010 in connection with the earlier establishment of a professional army.

Many of the properties are gradually deteriorating. If the Ministry wanted to renovate all of them, it would cost about 13.4 billion crowns. In the so-called White Paper - a concept also addressing the Ministry's properties - the defense planned to gradually use funds from the sale of its objects for renovations. However, out of the 4.2 billion obtained from sales between 2004 and 2015, the defense used only about a fifth of the money for repairs - 800 million crowns.

In the White Paper, the Ministry also set a goal to streamline the use of its accommodation facilities. In 2014, it proposed to cease operations at 37 accommodations with low occupancy or loss-making operations, and subsequently sell 31 of them. This way, the defense would save 20 million annually in expenses. However, the Army ultimately approved the sale of only seven accommodations. Between 2015 and 2017, the average occupancy of Army accommodations was only 50 percent, and some are not used at all.