Auditors slam financial planning for Swiss rail projects

The cost of railway upgrades are being wildly underestmated Keystone / Gaetan Bally

The Swiss Federal Audit Office says poor financial planning has underestimated the projected cost of railway upgrade projects to the tune of several billion francs.

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In a report published this week, auditors highlight shortcomings in financial forecasting and the quality of data. Given the scale of the projects, this could lead to large financial discrepancies between the start and end of projects.

The Federal Office of Transport must improve its management of the Rail Infrastructure Fund, which finances the development and maintenance of the railway network, according to the report.  Administrators and parliament lack sufficient transparency to make informed decisions.

Auditors highlight shortcomings in data collection, which is incomplete and does not always indicate whether the amounts include or exclude VAT, or whether inflation has been adjusted. Discrepancies were also observed between data used for forecasts and for project development, leading to an underestimation of costs.

In this context, the forecasts are unreliable and cannot be guaranteed. Furthermore, the planning does not take into account the possibility of work being blocked by legal challenges. It also fails to present several types of budget scenarios linked to compliance with legal requirements and proposed actions.

The report therefore recommends the establishment of more detailed data, which must be better verified and more accurately reflect the reality of the timeline.

In the report, the transport ministry accepts the recommendations. It states that it has been working for several years already to strengthen transparency, traceability and decision-making relevant to the Rail Infrastructure Fund’s long-term financial planning.

Adapted from French by AI/mga

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