State institutions and local governments hinder the implementation of 25 recommendations of the State Audit Office, according to the information gathered by the audit on the implementation of recommendations provided by the State Audit Office.
In total, public authorities and municipalities need to implement the 644 audit recommendations. Of all the recommendations that state institutions and local governments have to implement, the implementation of 25 recommendations or 3.9% of the recommendations is hindered.
According to the data of the State Audit Office, almost half – 11 – the implementation of recommendations is hindered by the Cabinet of Ministers. Until 2015, the Cabinet of Ministers had to assess the need to set stricter requirements for the outsourcing of legal and consulting services. Also, by 2015, the need for state institutions to provide centralized provision of legal services had to be assessed. Until 2015, the Cabinet of Ministers had to take measures to ensure procedures and criteria for state budget institutions to assess the need for the use of public procurement or media services.
Until the end of 2016, the Cabinet of Ministers also had to ensure the connection of the development planning system with budget planning, which would allow transparent monitoring of whether and to what extent it is planned to achieve the goals set in development planning documents with the annual and medium-term state budget.
The government has also not complied with the recommendation of the State Audit Office to evaluate the practice of issuing invitations within the framework of events organized by state budget institutions and state capital companies by the end of 2016. Until 2017, the Cabinet of Ministers was recommended to regulate the minimum amount of capital companies to be paid in dividends in legal acts within the framework of the reorganization of the initiated corporate governance system, as well as to ensure consistency and justification of these dividend payments.
This year, the Cabinet of Ministers had to ensure the openness of the establishment and operation of working groups involved in the development of the state budget. Also this year, the government had to develop a policy planning document, which would include specific goals, tasks and coordinated actions of line ministries to stabilize the flow of public investment after the end of the 2014-2020 programming period of European Union funds. In order to improve the public investment management process, the Cabinet of Ministers was invited to ensure that a system for public investment management has been developed and implemented by this year. Until this year, the government also had to ensure the link between the development planning system and budget planning.
The Ministry of Education and Science (MES) has delayed the implementation of four recommendations. By 2019, the Ministry was recommended to evaluate the possibility of improving the State Education Information System or VIIS in order to make it an effective tool for organizing the work of local government educational institutions, including incorporating a statement on the total paid workload of teachers, as well as developing more detailed preparation of tariffs.
This year, the Ministry of Education and Science had to evaluate the possibility of improving the VIIS, including control over the observance of the criteria for the distribution of funding for the remuneration of the director, deputy director and support staff of the educational institution. Also, this year the Ministry of Education and Science had to evaluate the possibilities of changes in the calculation period of earmarked grant funds, performing calculations before the beginning of the school year in order to ensure timely informing of teachers about the salary conditions.
The Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) has delayed the implementation of three recommendations. Until this year, the Ministry of Agriculture had to evaluate the possibility of establishing a joint management of the State Development Fund of the Forest Development Fund, the donation of JSC “Latvijas valsts meži” and the Hunting Farm Development Fund. This year, the Ministry of Agriculture also had to ensure the publication of information on the possibility to apply for technical support in the agricultural sector and to allocate funding to projects related to the purpose of the support. The State Chancellery has delayed the implementation of two recommendations. Until 2018, it had to take the necessary measures to ensure equal conditions in determining the remuneration of officials in state and local government institutions. Until 2019, the State Chancellery was recommended to consider the possibility of changing the existing procedure for determining the remuneration of local government deputies, making it clearer, simpler and more transparent.
The Ministry of Finance has delayed the implementation of one recommendation. Until 2017, in connection with the implementation of the project “Infrastructure Development on the Russian Island” by the Freeport of Riga Authority, it had to ensure the preparation of amendments to the decision of the European Commission (EC) on major projects. The Office for the Prevention and Combating of Corruption has delayed the implementation of one recommendation. By 2019, the institutions had to improve the regulatory framework regarding restrictions on the receipt and use of donations in local governments.
Riga Municipality has hindered the implementation of one recommendation. Until 2018, the Riga City Council, taking into account the results of roundwood processing, had to prevent unreasonable involvement of SIA “Rīgas meži” in commercial activities in the field of wood industry. The Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development has delayed the implementation of one recommendation. By 2019, the Ministry was recommended to develop a regulatory framework, determining the institutions responsible for the provision of pumping services and financing procedures, in order to facilitate the provision of pumping services and suspend the allocation of funds from the state budget program “Contingency Funds”.
Until 2016, the Liepāja Special Economic Zone (Liepāja SEZ) had to develop and implement rents, including for the berths of the Liepāja port.
LETA has already reported that on June 12 of this year, a new website of the State Audit Office was opened, which contains information on the implementation of recommendations provided during audits, agencies
LETA was informed by Edgars Korčagins, a member of the State Audit Office. It is planned that the information on the platform will be updated twice a year – on March 1 on the status of implementation of recommendations by December 31, and on September 1 on the status of implementation of recommendations by June 30. A member of the State Audit Office stated that only information on recommendations that are to be implemented or are being implemented will be published on the platform, and not on recommendations that have already been implemented.
Currently, the Ministry of Welfare (MoW) has the most recommendations, which, according to Korchagin, does not mean that this area is the most disorganized. The large number of recommendations is due to the fact that the recommendations provided by the State Audit Office to the MoW are new and there is still a deadline for their implementation. At the same time, he pointed out that the Cabinet of Ministers is the leader in the delays in the implementation of the recommendations.
In total, the government hinders the implementation of 11 recommendations, however, the representative of the State Audit Office attributes these delays to the fact that the implementation of specific recommendations requires a joint government decision. According to Korchagin, in general, state institutions and local governments are doing well in implementing the recommendations, as the level of delays is not high.
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