WITH DEFICIENCES OF VIEW
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The Court of Accounts of the Republic of Moldova, on July 4, examined within an online session the audit report of the consolidated financial statements of the Ministry of Health as of December 31, 2022.
Audit samples were collected from 18 entities that are consolidated in the financial report of the Ministry of Health and from 30 entities in which the Ministry of Health holds the role of founder, that have responsibilities or are tangential to the development of policies, administration, execution, reporting and monitoring of patrimony and public money in the field of health.
The assets managed by the Ministry of Health as of 31.12.2022 amounted to 3.2 billion lei. The actual expenses of the Ministry of Health for the year 2022 constituted 2.05 billion lei.
In the opinion of the Court of Accounts, taking into account some exceptions, the financial reports provide, under all significant aspects, a correct and faithful picture in accordance with the applicable financial reporting framework, the qualified audit opinion being issued.
The Ministry of Health and subordinate institutions manage 263 buildings with an area of 84 thousand m2. The consolidated information of the "Buildings" account was distorted by the following non-compliances:
- failure to register in the accounting records of 8 buildings with a total area of 2114.1 m2 whose estimated audit value according to the average accounting value of the owned buildings is 14.3 million lei;
- failure to register in the accounting records 23 buildings with a total area of 1893.1 m2, whose value, estimated by the audit, is about 12.8 million lei;
- failure to register by 7 institutions in the Real Estate Register (RER) of 17 buildings with a total value of 7.7 million lei with an area of 1143.7 m2 determines the limitation of the audit on the exposure regarding the correctness of the registration of the value of the "Buildings" account.
As a result of the registration in the accounting records and the reporting of 18 lands for which public entities do not hold the property right, which is registered to be owned by the LPA, determined the overvaluation of the "Land" account by 25.9 million lei and the undervaluation of the off-balance sheet account "Lease/lease assets" by the same amount.
The value of the "Shares and other forms of equity participation within the country" account of the Ministry of Health was reduced by 2.1 billion lei, as a result of the failure to fully register the investments made by the Ministry of Health and other state entities in the infrastructure of the institutions founded by the ministry, as well as the transfer into management of buildings and lands that are part of the public domain of state property.
The self-managed entities in which the Ministry of Health is the founder have in use 523 buildings with a balance sheet value of 1.8 billion lei, as well as 192 plots of land with an area of approximately 1.7 thousand hectares, worth at least 492.6 million lei, which are administered by public medical and sanitary institutions and Colleges and therefore, according to the provisions of point 6 of the NAS "Tangible and intangible fixed assets", approved by Order of the Ministry of Finance no. 118 of 06.08.2013, they cannot be reflected in the balance sheet of these entities as tangible fixed assets.
Also, the audit found that 25 buildings with a total surface area of 9.5 thousand m2 under the economic management of self-management institutions were not registered in the accounting and RER records, whose value estimated by the audit is about 64.2 million lei.
The Public Institution "Unit for coordination, implementation and monitoring of projects in the field of health" reported as expenses the amount of 26.3 million lei to the account "Services not assigned to other lines", accepting the expenses incurred by the Public Associations, which included administrative costs related to salaries and management, procurement of mobile phones, tablets, transport maintenance, etc., in the absence of confirmatory documents regarding the use of these means for the purposes of realizing the program (providing medical, diagnostic/prophylaxis, consultation/counseling services for affected persons or those at increased risk of infection).
Also, the audit was unable to verify and evaluate the use of public funds, granted to the Center for Policies and Analyzes in Health (PAH) as a sub-recipient of the funds received from the Global Fund to fight HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis through the project implementation unit in the amount of 28.4 million lei, at the level of serving people, indices established in the contract, but not evaluated and not reported due to the non-delimitation of the financial means for the purpose of realizing the program with those of the PAH Center administration.
Concerning the implementation of 5 recommendations submitted in the previous audit, it is noted that 4 recommendations were partially implemented, and one recommendation is not implemented, which led to their reiteration in the audit report. It should be mentioned that not fully implementing the recommendations has an impact on the audit opinion and on the consolidated financial statements of the Ministry of Health concluded on December 31, 2022.
