Public accounts do not usually attract widespread public attention unless they show a dangerous trend in the country’s finances. Even the Budget can get a cool reception unless any particular measure, such as a tax increase, hits the pocket.
Most people would only be interested in the allowance the government decides to give to make up for the rise in the cost of living.
However, there is one report on public accounts that often enough provides material that hits the headlines, usually for the wrong reasons – that of the Auditor General, whose office is the guardian of the public purse; State auditing marked its 200th anniversary last year. The report brings up shortcomings in the administration of funds and makes recommendations on how matters can be improved.
The report is not looked upon favourably by those put in a bad light. It is also usually considered grist to the mill of the Opposition in Parliament. However, beyond the discussion or controversies it may generate, what ought to count most are the measures taken to check shortcomings and, equally important, to guard against any negligence and fraud.
The latest report, for 2013, brought up a number of cases that deserve closer scrutiny, such as “excessive expenditure” at the electoral office; a weak internal control system at Malta Heritage; insufficient monitoring and follow-up of settlement agreements entered into with taxpayers in default; breach of procurement regulations at St Vincent de Paul Residence; and lack of appropriate internal controls in the payroll process at the police department, which led to overpayment of salaries.
There are two particular cases that have already stirred discussion: the financial sustainability of Gozo Channel and the “significant changes” made to the original contract of the car park and traffic management and external security services at Mater Dei Hospital.
The Auditor General describes the financial sustainability of the ferry service company as “very critical”. The list of shortcomings he gives is worrying indeed: “A weak control environment prevailed within a number of areas.
These included several expired contracts, weak budgetary control, inefficient utilisation of personnel, lack of control on overtime and lack of synergy between management as well as between the various units within the company”.
In the case of Mater Dei Hospital, the changes made to the contract led to a considerable loss of revenue, amounting to over €1 million a year. Another major concern is over the lack of control on expenditure relating to cleaning services on which the hospital paid close to €6 million in 2013. Managements may have good reasons for some of the shortcomings listed in the report but surely the audit office can hardly be wrong on all the irregularities found.
In so far as the problems facing Gozo Channel are concerned, these require a full-scale analysis by the Public Accounts Committee to see how the situation can be improved in the shortest time possible.
The deputy auditor general, Charles Deguara, says that one of the most important challenges the office faces is ensuring it remains relevant. “Unless its audits and assignments remain relevant to Parliament – to which it reports, enabling adequate parliamentary scrutiny, and to the taxpayer, whose interests it seeks to safeguard – it surely would not be in a position to meet its objectives.”
The audit office may not have pleased administrations all the time but, by being thorough and impartial, it has done, and is still doing, a most useful service.
Its work deserves more attention.