The State Audit Office has completed last year’s financial audits of ministries and central state institutions, and for the second year in a row, there are no objections to the accuracy of the annual accounts. However, breaches of legislation have been identified in some departments, Latvian Television reports on April 16.
“The fact that, for the second year in a row, all the opinions issued on the annual accounts are with no objections is testimony to the high quality of the accounting and to the successful cooperation between the institutions and the auditors. It is thanks to this cooperation that the authorities have already corrected 96% of the errors found by the auditors,” emphasised Ilze Bādere, Member of the Council of the State Audit Office.
The audits of the annual accounts in some areas revealed non-compliance with regulatory enactments, failure to address issues identified in previous audits and untimely allocation of budget funds.
The State Audit Office has published 25 out of 26 audit reports, as the Ministry of Transport has disputed some of the information included in the audit report and opinion.
“The issue is the interpretation of the legislation, how we look at it. In our opinion, the laws and regulations have been violated, the Ministry of Transport is of a different opinion. We will meet and discuss this issue again,” Bādere explained on the Latvian Television programme “Morning Panorama”.
She revealed that the State Audit Office had reservations about the payment of remuneration at the ministry, but did not comment further.
Although the opinions on the preparation of the annual accounts were without objections, breaches of laws and regulations were identified in some areas. For example, in an audit of the Ministry of Education and Science, the personal files of students of one vocational education programme group at the Riga Style and Fashion Technical School were examined, and a possible fraud – fictitious students – was detected.
An audit of the Ministry of Justice found that the Judicial Administration had incorrectly applied the regulatory enactments governing the calculation of average earnings. The auditors calculated that 13,000 euros had thus been overpaid to the three staff members, of which 7,600 euros were reimbursed to the State budget during the audit.
This is the final year in which the State Audit Office (VK) has 27 separate financial audit reports and opinions (14 ministries, 12 central public authorities and the consolidated annual report). From May 2025, the new approach to financial audits will be fully implemented, with only one single audit report.
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