The Government has not yet been submitted the first quarterly report on the implementation of the Action Plan for State Audit Institution’s (SAI) recommendations to the Parliament. This is a violation of the Parliament’s conclusion and confirms our claim that the effect of SAI’s work is hampered by the executive’s relation toward audit reports.
We call upon the Parliamentary Committee for Economy, Finance and Budget to urgently remind the Government about this responsibility and to hold the Ministry of Finance accountable for the delay. This is a prerequisite for conducting control hearing of the audit entities that do not fulfill SAI’s recommendations, as well as of the Minister of Finance for disregarding Committee’s conclusions.
In November last year, the Government has adopted an Action Plan to implement the SAI’s recommendations. IA criticized the action plan after its adoption, the superficial approach to its drafting and defective form in which it was adopted.
The Parliament, considering the year-end budget report and the SAI’s accompanying audit report, adopted conclusions which made an obligation for the Government to report on implementation of SAI’s recommendations at the end of each quarter. At the session of the Committee for Economy, Finance and Budget, the Minister of Finance announced a serious approach to the recommendations of the SAI and confirmed that the intention of the government to the implementation of their quarterly reports to the Parliament.
The promised quarterly report on the fulfillment of the Action Plan was not prepared: it was not discussed at the Government’s session, and IA found out through the request for free access to information that the Parliament does not have it either.
It should be remembered that this Action Plan was adopted because of serious irregularities that SAI reported in the year-end budget report audit, but also because of the embarrassingly low level of implementation of SAI’s last year’s recommendations (out of 18 recommendations imposed, 13 recommendations remained unfulfilled).
IA has long warned that the impact of SAI restricted by the government are not built mechanisms for horizontal application of SAI recommendations. Government’s latest disregard for the conclusions of the Parliament is a confirmation of our claims.
Marko SOŠIĆ
Policy Analyst
