Supreme Office for the Republic of Srpska Public Sector Auditing has conducted a performance audit entitled “Еfficiency of the collection and use of fees for public roads in the registration of motor vehicles and trailers”. The main subject of this performance audit is the collection and use of the public road fees payable when registering motor vehicles and trailers. The purpose of this performance audit is to examine whether the activities for calculating, collecting and controlling the collection of fees for public roads in the registration of motor vehicles and trailers are being carried out efficiently, and whether the collected funds are efficiently used for the purposes defined by the Regulation.
Audit findings show that the compensation amounts by vehicle category have not been prescribed based on clear criteria, depending on their payload or some other parameters for determining the fee, and that the Regulation, as the basic document for the calculation, collection and control of the collection, did not fully and comprehensively regulate issues related to the efficient calculation and collection of fees for all categories and purposes of vehicles.
The prescribed method of control did not provide reliable and comprehensive control of the calculation and collection of fees. There is no prescribed method of entering vehicle identification data into the control system, nor automatic fee calculation as an element for preventive payment control.
Data on registered vehicles and calculated and paid fees are kept in three different, unconnected databases that give different data on the number of vehicles and estimated and collected fees, none of which can provide complete information on obligations and level of payment of fees. Depending on the source, the estimated total amounts of fees to be paid vary as well.
Official indicators on the causes of road accidents on the road network in Republic of Srpska state that the road and the surrounding road participate less than 1% as a cause of traffic accidents. The aforementioned information is a consequence of the shortcomings of the methodology for identifying the factor of occurrence of traffic accidents that is applied, not the actual impact of the road on the occurrence of traffic accidents or their influence on the severity of the consequences of traffic accidents.
The public company Roads of Republic of Srpska have not planed earmarked funds for the improvement of traffic safety at the level prescribed by the Regulation, and the realization of these funds was many times less than planned. Traffic safety checks have been conducted with delay and the implementation of identified measures to correct road defects have not reached the execution phase. The road safety checks carried out so far are characterized by deficiencies, such as: insufficient equipment and training of checkers, focusing on deficiencies that are the subject of regular road maintenance, inadequate supervision of the performed works and the like.
Activities on identification of hazardous sites have been intensified in the past but measures for their delineation and elimination have been implemented with delay. So far, three dangerous sites have been removed, but lower ranking sites and as part of the regular activities of the Public Company Roads of Republic of Srpska. Implementation of identified measures for elimination of dangerous places on the roads has not reached the stage of construction works.
The conducted audit showed that there is significant room for improving the efficiency of collection of fees and the use of earmarked funds for the improvement of traffic safety.
In the performance audit report, the Supreme Office for the Republic of Srpska Public Sector Auditing offers recommendations to the Government of the Republika Srpska, the Ministry of Transport and Communications and the Public Company Roads of Republic of Srpska, whose implementation can improve the efficiency of collection of fees and the use of earmarked funds for improving traffic safety.
A complete performance audit report is available on the website of the Supreme Office for the Republic of Srpska Public Sector Auditing.
