Road works were carried out in Gozo when documented contracts were not in place, the National Audit Office complained this evening.

In a report submitted to parliament, the National Audit Office (NAO) was strongly critical of the Directorate for Projects and Development within the Ministry for Gozo.

“The practice of not ensuring that a documented contract is in place to govern commissioned works and supply agreements is, in NAO’s opinion, an unacceptable practice and one which creates considerable risks to the value for the funds being invested,” the Audit Office said.

This situation, it said, created significant gaps in safeguards and obligations between the two concerned parties.

The audit office said its review yielded significant concerns especially on the directorate’s overall lack of good governance.

The procurement related files forwarded by the Directorate featured, to different extents, missing documentation which is considered as pivotal by this Office.

Procurement files forwarded by the Directorate lacked ‘pivotal’ documentation. It had concluded, the audit office said, that the directorate “does not consistently ascertain that contractual and performance safeguards are in place in managing road-related projects, thereby exposing itself to evitable and obvious risks.”

It also observed that while the directorate said it had enough workers in terms of quantity, even if several of these workers lacked significant skills for the job, the directorate nonetheless continued to substantially increase this workforce.
Between March and July 2017, the directorate committed to fork out an additional €277,813 per year on this roadwork related workforce.

Read the report in full by clicking on the pdf below.