Some days they seem to be everywhere, lurking near the escalators of Prague metro stations or mingling with passengers on the city's trams. Locals don't like them. Tourists complain about them.

And yet, on public transportation based on the honor system, ticket inspectors are the only way to deter freeloaders from riding without paying. The problem, although city transport officials don't like to talk about it, is that the control system is highly inefficient.

According to Czech media, ticket inspectors uncover only 0.3 percent of nonpaying passengers. One out of 15 rides without a ticket, resulting in financial losses worth millions of crowns.

But Prague Transport Company (DP) spokeswoman Michaela Kuchařová said these numbers are unsubstantiated, yet she could not provide more accurate ones. She also wasn't able to answer why so many people cheat, and why inspectorslers are so bad at catching them.

Given the low success rate of inspectors and the relatively low fines, riding ticketless seems like a worthwhile risk for many passengers. After all, according to the media, you have a less than 1 percent chance of getting caught.

Even if you were caught once a month and required to pay the 500 Kč ($22.81) fine — 500 Kč on the spot, 950 Kč later — it would cost you about the same as getting a monthly pass. A 30-day pass costs 460 Kč.

This spring, 33 new inspectors joined the ranks of Prague ticket inspectors, bringing their number to 150, according to Kuchařová. Inspectors collected 94.5 million Kč last year. This is up from 87.5 million Kč in 2004, but still far below desired targets. What's more, the numbers don't necessarily mean that more people were caught. Fines increased 100 Kč between 2004 and 2005, which could account for at least some of the 7 million Kč increase.

City police are now supposed to be helping inspectors, on standby, ready to intervene when a troublesome passenger comes along. Every other day, police officers and inspectors check passengers together. "It's been most effective," said Kuchařová.

But just how effective, she wouldn't say.

Since the inspectors' pay is related to how many fines they collect, inspectors have a vested interest in catching as many ticketless passengers as possible. Again, the DP won't say how much inspectors get for each freeloader caught.

Cynics suggest that inspectors catch more passengers than they report, and then pocket the fines. The DP denies this, and insists that if inspectors are corrupt they will be quickly found out.

To make their work more efficient, inspectors spend more time controlling Prague's busier metro stops, such as Můstek, Muzeum, Staroměstská and Malostranská, and trams passing through the city center. Three pairs of inspectors checked crowds on the A line metro on a recent Saturday afternoon and, aside from a few startled looks from unsuspecting tourists, the passengers didn't seem to be giving the inspectors any trouble.

In fact, it was the ticket machines at the top of the escalators at Národní třída that created the most commotion. A huddle of Spanish-speakers encircled one, discussing for several minutes how it operates before finally dropping in the required 20 Kč coins.

Although instructions on how to use tickets are now pasted in English on the machines, many foreigners continue to be baffled by the multiple prices and the two-step system that requires passengers to first buy a ticket and then validate it.

Which begs another question: If the ticket system is not only inefficient but also confusing for many users, why doesn't the city invest money into changing it? Installing gates or turnstiles that only admit passengers with a valid ticket, like in London or New York City, would at the very least make it harder for people to cheat.

According to city officials, however, no such costly structural changes are planned for the foreseeable future.

"Such gates would be a huge investment," said City Hall spokesman Jiří Wolf.

Prague's public transportation is struggling as it is. For the first time, the state budget proposed this month by the outgoing Social Democratic-led government doesn't set aside any money for Prague's metro.