The State’s drugs and alcohol abuse agency, Sedqa, submitted “fabricated and amended documents” when replying to National Audit Office queries during an investigation, a report has revealed.
The NAO had asked for further clarifications about a matter related to salaries during the 2014 audit and Sedqa’s replies were accompanied by documents that were different to those originally submitted.
The matter came to the fore during yesterday’s Public Accounts Committee meeting that was convened to discuss the NAO report on the audit carried out at Sedqa.
The NAO said the fabricated documents were submitted by Aġenzija Sedqa in five instances.
It is invariably unacceptable to provide altered documents
The government agency was berated by the auditor, which described the matter as “unacceptable” behaviour.
“It is invariably unacceptable to provide altered documents to NAO following queries raised during the audit. Replies should always be honest, accurate and factual, and original documents should be forwarded without any type of modification or change,” the watchdog said in its report.
Sedqa admitted the incident, saying it was “an isolated and unfortunate incident which was done with absolutely no malicious intent but only was meant to replace a requested document which, somehow, went missing”.
The Principal Permanent Secretary said “summary disciplinary proceedings” had been taken against those responsible, and he promised disciplinary action in similar, future circumstances.
Weak internal controls in various areas relating to salaries were revealed during the agency’s audit. They led to overpayment of overtime and unreliable vacation leave records. The audit found various discrepancies between hours worked, as recorded in the attendance sheets, and the time off in lieu claimed by workers.
The NAO found two employees had exceeded their annual leave entitlement by an aggregate of 90 hours – which is more than 11 days of extra vacation leave.
Other shortcomings related to the vacation leave were pointed out by the NAO, including instances where extra vacation leave hours’ entitlements were not supported by any documents.
The audit office identified six employees who were entitled to more vacation leave than that stipulated in their collective agreement but the only explanation afforded was that this practice had originated a number of years ago and had never changed.
Logbooks controlling the use of general-use vehicles were at times “inadequately maintained”, said the NAO. The six books reviewed lacked information about refuelling while there was lacking information on fuel purchased.
In response to the audit, Sedqa’s management said it agreed with most of the findings and that corrective measures had been taken.