Construction, Estonia, Financial Services, Legislation, Transport

“The development plans for the transportation sector in Estonia for the years 2006-2013 have established an objective to determine the needs for investments on local roads by the end of 2007, but this has thus far not been done,” reads the audit. The State Audit Office estimated that the actual state of local roads or the need for road maintenance works has not been studied in a comprehensive manner.

Road maintenance costs are among the biggest ones in local municipalities’ spending, only behind educational institutions’ maintenance costs. In the year 2008, nearly 1.9 billion kroons from the State budget and in 2009 nearly 1.2 billion kroons were paid to local governments.

At the same time a poll carried out in May revealed that nearly 90% of local governments find that the amount of funds spent on road maintenance each year is insufficient and the missing part ought to be provided by the State.

“The State’s representatives also admit the need for better financing, but the exact necessity for funds has not been determined as there are no studies on the matter. Hence there are also no weighty arguments to support municipalities’ demands when allocating funds from the State budget for local roads is being discussed,” remarked the State Audit Office.

The institution finds that the State rarely checks the state of the local roads and although municipalities themselves assess that the state of the roads is very bad, this is a subjective evaluation.