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Many Swiss companies have received financial aid. A data analysis now shows various “abnormalities”.
The Swiss Federal Audit Office (SFAO) noticed numerous suspicious applications when analyzing Covid-19 hardship measures for companies.
The evaluations of the SFAO are based on the data in the database of the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco). According to this, as of November 30, 2021, almost 35,000 companies had submitted a total of around 52,000 applications worth five billion francs. 96 percent of the hardship assistance was granted as à fonds perdu contributions.
The analysis of the financial control revealed “a large number of cases in which it must be clarified whether there are possible violations or incorrect data,” as the audit report says. However, the data analysis does not provide any substantiated cases of suspected abuse, but “abnormalities”.
Data quality “insufficient”
There are many possible misconducts: According to the analysis, numerous companies have apparently claimed federal funds and at the same time distributed dividends, although this would be prohibited. In other cases, according to the financial control, the specified maximum limit for drawing hardship benefits was exceeded.
In the case of other companies, the SFAO has doubts about the data given in the self-declaration regarding the decline in sales. There are “some significant differences between the sales figures for the VAT declaration and for the financial aid request,” writes the control authority.
The financial controllers recommend that Seco improve the data quality in the database, as this data formed the basis for the payment to the cantons. The data quality is currently “insufficient”.
According to its own statements, the Confederation has installed automated controls in the payment process to the cantons, which are intended to reduce the financial risk. For example, payments of the federal shares would be linked to the permissible maximum limits. Invoices from the cantons would be suspended for those individual cases in which the reference turnover did not reach CHF 50,000.
In many cases there are good reasons for deviations. For others, the findings do not pose any risks for the federal government.
Overall, Seco points out in its statement that the findings in the SFAO report cannot directly lead to suspected abuse. “In many cases there are good reasons for deviations. For others, the findings do not pose any risks for the federal government.” In addition, a good part of the findings relate to cases that were already included in the first SFAO data analysis, writes the Seco.
The financial control report also points out points that are not related to possible violations of the Covid-19 Hardship Ordinance. For example, almost 2,500 companies could have more than compensated for the loss of sales during the time they were not officially closed.
Therefore, in retrospect, the à fonds perdu financial aid was probably not necessary in many cases, writes the SFAO. The financial aid granted to these companies amounted to 215 million Swiss francs – four percent of the total financial aid granted.
High guarantee losses
The SFAO also took a close look at the corona short-time work compensation. Overall, from March 2020 to the end of 2021, the control authority analyzed more than 1.4 million payments to a good 160,000 companies totaling around CHF 14 billion. Seco is currently checking several hundred suspicious payment transactions.