The Confederation paid too many subsidies for milk quality control. The Financial Control recommends that the administration recover several million from the Suisselab SA laboratory and switch to a fixed contribution of controls.
At the request of the Office of Veterinary Affairs and Food Safety (OSAV), the controllers verified the subsidies paid for the years 2016 and 2017 to the laboratory. Of the 6.6 million francs spent during these two years, more than 1.9 million are not justified by eligible expenses, they conclude in a report published Monday.
Three types of problems have arisen. The costs not only include charges not allowed by the order, but they do not correspond to an actual charge and there are charges that are too high. Not to mention that Suisselab’s accounting lacks transparency, even if the laboratory firmly denies it.
In detail, the laboratory took into account administration and development costs that it should not have. There too, the interested party contested and said that he did not understand how the audit arrived at the sum of 1.03 million administrative costs improperly retained.
Price due
Suisselab is also criticized for having claimed costs that do not correspond to an actual charge. Depreciation charges are therefore higher than investments and the problem already existed for the years 2013 to 2015.
The laboratory recognizes this, but links this state of affairs to its efficiency and cost reduction efforts. He considers that the price fixed in the contract is due to him. He also judges that he did not invoke too high rent and incidental costs as the controllers assure him.
In total, the costs deemed ineligible by the audit amount to 796,000 for 2016 and 873,000 francs for 2017. The FSVO is requested to request reimbursement of a total of almost 2 million overpayments, which ‘he intends to do well.
Reform the system
The agency also supports the recommendation to reform the system to simplify monitoring. In its message on agricultural policy 2022 sent to Parliament this month, the Federal Council is already proposing the principle of a flat-rate subsidy provided that the dairy industry can contribute enough to the costs (at least 50%).
The provider would thus be encouraged to control its costs. In principle, there would be no retroactive correction of the subsidy and this would prevent the FSVO from checking the accuracy of the costs each year. He should simply regularly review the amount of the lump sum.
The milk control subsidy has already been discussed in Parliament. The Federal Council wanted to delete it from the 2018 budget. It believed that the costs should be borne by milk producers as in other food sectors. The approximately 145 francs per year to be paid by each farm seemed acceptable to him.
Parliament refused, citing the precarious situation of milk producers. In the current system, the national organizations of producers and users of milk mandate a laboratory in charge of controls in agreement with the FSVO. For several years, Suisselab SA, in Zollikofen (BE), has collected samples from 20,000 milk producers twice a month. (Ps / nxp)
Created: 24.02.2020, 11:01 p.m.
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