Supervision of federal enterprises: three answers, three positions

clarus.news | Interim report | June 23, 2026

The first reactions to our inquiry about IT downsizing at Swiss Post paint a differentiated picture. The owner department DETEC primarily refers to responsibilities. National Councillor Benoît Gaillard (SP/Vaud) contradicts our approach with justification. Council of States member Josef Dittli (FDP/Uri) differentiates from a regulatory policy perspective. All three reject a blanket expansion of financial control – but their approaches differ significantly on how to proceed. This is an interim report; the detailed evaluation will follow after July 7.

The official response: brief and referring to responsibilities

The statement from the DETEC General Secretariat – coordinated with the Federal Finance Administration, as both the FDF and DETEC are jointly responsible for Swiss Post – is restrained. It consistently emphasizes the division of roles: The Federal Council sets strategic goals and monitors their achievement but must not become a co-manager. Responsibility for location selection, personnel deployment, and IT realignment lies with Swiss Post's Board of Directors and Executive Management.

On the supervision question itself, the department responds in one sentence: The existing instruments are "differentiated in design, effective"; the Federal Council sees no indication of insufficient financial supervision. It refers detailed questions to the Finance Department or the SFAO. There is no substantive engagement at this level with the points we raised – foreign locations, IT dependencies. This is the formally correct position of the owner; however, it deliberately leaves the debate to others.

The National Councillor: a no with justification

Benoît Gaillard, SP National Councillor from Vaud, takes a different approach. He also rejects stronger financial supervision – but explains why. He is skeptical about the current role of the Swiss Federal Audit Office: It wants to perform both in-depth financial auditing and effectiveness reviews simultaneously, and its tone often makes its recommendations difficult to hear. What matters are less loud external controls than robust internal control systems – and clear, lasting government mandates for Swiss Post, for example in the area of public data infrastructure. Little would be gained from merely strengthening supervision.

The Council of States member: differentiate rather than expand

Josef Dittli, FDP Council of States member from Uri, approaches the question from a regulatory policy perspective – and comes close to our original distinction. He advocates for a clean differentiation: For units in monopoly and basic service areas like Swiss Post or SBB, targeted, risk-based supervision by the SFAO – "especially for major IT cluster risks" – is justified and in taxpayers' interest. For partially privatized, listed companies like Swisscom, however, corporate law principles and equal treatment of shareholders must take precedence; there, private auditors apply.

Dittli rejects a blanket expansion of SFAO competencies across all federal enterprises – it would lead to redundancies and politicization of business risks. More sensible would be sharpening parliamentary oversight based on existing reports. Remarkably, Dittli explicitly shares our described concern about IT cluster risks at Swiss Post and SBB – and specifically does not reject targeted SFAO supervision there.

PostBus, in one paragraph

That downstream control reaches its limits is shown by a case everyone in Bern knows anyway. In the PostBus case, the subsidy claim of over 200 million francs was not discovered by the SFAO, but by the Federal Office of Transport – by an auditor named Pascal Stirnimann, who has headed the SFAO since September 2022. The gap we're discussing here is therefore not theoretical.

What's emerging

These three voices already reveal an instructive pattern. In the common denominator, all agree: no blanket expansion of the SFAO over all federal enterprises. Beyond that, however, paths diverge – along an interesting line. The owner department sees no need for action. Both parliamentarians, from left and right, do see one: Gaillard in internal controls and government mandates, Dittli in targeted supervision for Swiss Post and SBB and parliamentary oversight.

If this picture solidifies, that would be the actual finding: Those who bear responsibility see the smallest problem – those who are supposed to control it, the biggest. Whether the still outstanding responses from other councillors confirm this line is the question we'll pursue in the continuation.

In our own words

This article is an interim report. Due to the ongoing session, feedback is possible until July 7, 2026; the detailed evaluation of all responses will follow thereafter. National Councillor Gaillard and Council of States member Dittli have agreed to the use of their statements under their names; the passages used will be submitted to them for review. The DETEC response is an official statement to clarus.news.

This interim report is based on the statement from the DETEC General Secretariat (coordinated with the Federal Finance Administration) of June 22, 2026, on email exchanges with National Councillor Benoît Gaillard (SP/Vaud) and Council of States member Josef Dittli (FDP/Uri) of June 23, 2026, on the initial clarus.news article of June 12, 2026, and on publicly accessible sources regarding the PostBus case.

Sources:

• Statement GS-DETEC, coordinated with FDF/FFA, June 22, 2026
• Email exchange clarus.news / NC Benoît Gaillard (SP/VD), June 23, 2026 (use authorized)
• Email exchange clarus.news / CS Josef Dittli (FDP/UR), June 23, 2026 (use authorized)
• clarus.news: "Where the SFAO doesn't look...", June 12, 2026
• Federal Office of Transport (FOT): PostBus subsidy case, February 6, 2018; SFAO Director Pascal Stirnimann since September 1, 2022

Tags: #SFAO #FinancialSupervision #DETEC #SwissPost #SBB #Swisscom #PostBus #BenoîtGaillard #JosefDittli #FederalEnterprises #InterimReport