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The audit was carried out in co-operation with the Supreme Audit Institutions of Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania to gain confidence that the Rail Baltica project as a whole had an efficient and cost-effective procurement and contract management system in place before the commencement of large-scale construction projects, and the corrective actions to eliminate the deficiencies detected during the audit would help improving the system.
In general, JSC RB Rail has developed the procurement and contract management system of the Rail Baltica project, including monitoring, and it is being improved over time. However, at the global project level, there is currently a lack of project management procedures, especially in change and risk management. This contributes to the risk that the Rail Baltica project will exceed both the budget approved in the CEF Grant Agreements and the implementation time schedule set out in the Grant Agreements and the Intergovernmental Agreement if one does not improve the existing system to increase efficiency. At the end of 2019, the implementation of project activities lags behind the time schedule initially specified in the Grant Agreements by one and a half years.
JSC RB Rail, its shareholders, and the beneficiaries of the Rail Baltica project such as the ministries of all three countries responsible for transport must agree on clear decision-making rules at all levels of project implementation, change management in the project, as well as a single risk management system of the Global Project to reduce the risk of the project time schedule and budget being exceeded.