Publications Press releases
Quality of Federal Council dispatches satisfactory overall
Bern, 09.02.2017 – The Swiss Federal Audit Office (SFAO) examined 50 Federal Council dispatches from between 2007 and 2014. The aim was to assess the quality of the forecasts contained in these documents. What impact will a new law have on the environment, on society, on the economy, on the cantons or on federal finances? The assessment gives a positive picture overall, but some improvements are recommended.
Several parliamentary procedural requests, like the SFAO, address the issue of the forecast quality in Federal Council dispatches. In its statement on the SFAO's assessment, the Federal Council indicated that it had instructed the Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research to give it proposals to enhance the control of forecast quality insofar as possible. These proposals must take account of the two motions adopted recently (Vogler 15.3400 and the Radical Free Democratic Group FDP 15.3445). Like the Federal Council, the SFAO does not favour the creation of new control structures. It recommends enhancing the position of the Federal Chancellery, which is in a privileged position and offers the necessary guarantees of independence.
The various Federal Council texts relating to the third series of corporate tax reforms (CTR III) were not examined by the SFAO. This evaluation does not allow any conclusion to be drawn on those documents. The Finance Delegation took note of this evaluation in January.
- Details
Archive press releases