SFAO annual report 2025: Intergenerational responsibility
Bern, 21.05.2026 — The decisions the Federal Administration makes – or fails to make – today will have consequences for future generations. The Swiss Federal Audit Office (SFAO) helps to identify risks at an early stage and highlight where action is needed. However, to ensure that the SFAO can effectively fulfil its role as an independent audit body, it sees a need for action.
“We owe it to future generations to ensure that the Federal Administration does not burden them,” explains SFAO Director Pascal Stirnimann. Two audits by the SFAO on contaminated sites show that this includes not only financial debt but also environmental damage: for the former ammunition depot in Mitholz, where explosions occurred in 1947, clearance costs of CHF 2.59 billion are projected until 2045. There is still a long way to go before the old Gamsenried landfill site in the canton of Valais – where chemical waste was deposited for decades – is cleaned up, and measures need to be implemented to minimise the financial burden on the Confederation.
Further costs may arise from undisclosed follow-up costs. The SFAO found that the Federal Administration does not estimate future IT operating costs early enough. This means that current projects risk placing a burden on future budgets. This risk is also evident in other areas. For instance, the SFAO highlighted additional costs relating to construction work at military airfields where F-35A fighter jets are to be stationed in the future, and demanded that these be fully disclosed.
Cybersecurity is a high priority in the SFAO's audits. The SFAO identified risks relating to both cybersecurity and data protection in connection with electronic identity (e-ID). All security issues must be resolved before the e-ID is introduced. Otherwise, confidence in the federal digitalisation projects could be undermined.
Political funding – this task threatens the SFAO's DNA
Trust in the SFAO is also at stake. Since 2022, it has been carrying out enforcement tasks in relation to transparency in political funding. A study saw this as jeopardising the SFAO's independence – and thus the central cornerstone of its work. The issue of political funding is highly politicised and this threatens the SFAO's reputation and credibility. The authors of the study concluded that assigning enforcement tasks to the SFAO jeopardises its core mandate, which is problematic from a constitutional perspective.
The SFAO sees the study as confirmation of its position: the mandate of a supreme financial supervisory authority is to audit the expenditure of the Federal Administration, not the private funds of political actors. In the long term, enforcing transparency in political funding should not be the responsibility of the SFAO.
The SFAO's 2025 annual report and the University of Bern study are available on its website.