Audited entities implemented 90 per cent of the ACA’s recommendations

The Austrian Court of Audit (ACA) makes an impact: this is shown by the follow-up reports published today 

• Expansion of Parking Management in Vienna; Follow-up Audit
• Management of Selected IT Projects of the IT Programme "E-Finance"; Follow-up Audit as well as 
• Austrian Higher Education Area; Follow-up Audit.

Of the overall 48 assessed recommendations, 33 were implemented fully and eleven partly. These figures equal a degree of implementation of more than 90 per cent.

Residential parking lots were wrongly marked – penalties were imposed

In its preceding report, the ACA had recommended to the City of Vienna to mark residential parking lots more clearly since the road users sometimes failed to perceive them as such. This recommendation was partly implemented by corresponding ground markings. 

On 1 December 2018, new ordinances issued by the Vienna City Administration came into effect in order to enable, among others, commercial transport operators to use residential parking lots. The changing of road signs, however, failed in the 1^st and 8^th municipal district as these two districts did not finance the rearrangement. Therefore, the old road signs stayed in place although they did not correspond to the new ordinances. The new ordinances were therefore not perceivable on the public streets.

Although the City of Vienna had asked the Vienna Provincial Police Directorate not to issue any legal tickets (Organstrafverfügung) due to the non-compliance with stopping and parking restrictions, the parking space monitoring group nevertheless issued complaints in some cases. Furthermore, the Municipal Department 67 “Supervision of On-Street Parking” also prescribed penalties.

The ACA recommended to the City of Vienna to immediately remove the no longer relevant road signs in the 1^st and 8^th district. Furthermore, the new, applicable ordinances regarding residential parking should be implemented via road signs with corresponding additional signs. And: the Vienna Provincial Police Directorate should, in the framework of its professional supervision, ensure a uniform management of the legal complaints.

Of the 20 assessed recommendations, the City of Vienna implemented eleven fully, six partly and three not at all, of which one could not be implemented for plausible reasons due to a change of the framework conditions. Of the four assessed recommendations, the Vienna Provincial Police Directorate implemented two fully, one partly and one not at all, as shown in the report “Expansion of Parking Management in Vienna; Follow-up Audit”.

Increasing the number of graduates

Of the 14 assessed recommendations issued in the preceding report on the Austrian Higher Education Area, the Federal Ministry of Education implemented eleven fully and three partly. In its follow-up audit report, the ACA reiterated its recommendation to adopt measures to increase the number of graduates at Austria’s universities. The preceding report, for example, showed that Switzerland’s higher education institutes produced about as many graduates as Austria, which, however, counted twice as many students. The reasons for the higher number of graduates in Switzerland should be concretely examined.

Of the ten assessed recommendations, the Ministry of Finance implemented nine fully and one partly. This is shown by the report “Management of Selected IT Projects of the IT programme “E-Finanz”; Follow-up Audit”. In the course of the ACA’s follow-up audit, the auditors found that although internal staff-related resources for six IT projects selected by the ACA had been planned and allocated, they had not been approved by the steering committee.