WITH DEFICIENCES OF VIEW
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Public procurement procedures within the system of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) need to be improved in order to increase the transparency and efficiency of the use of public financial means, mentioned Petru Rotaru, Member of the Court of Accounts of the Republic of Moldova (CoARM) during the meeting of the Public Finance Control Parliamentary Committee (PFCC).
We mention that the examination meeting of the Audit Report on the consolidated financial reports of the Ministry of Internal Affairs concluded on December 31, 2020, approved throughout the CoARM’s Decision no. 32 from 29.06.2021 and the Compliance Audit Report on public procurement within the MIA’s system in the years 2019-2020, approved throughout the CoARM’s Decision no. 50 from 10.09.2021 took place on November 10 this year.
During the meeting, the auditors of the CoARM reported on the gaps and deficiencies found during the audits.
The audit of the consolidated financial statements verified the areas related to remuneration, management of patrimony and state material reserves, keeping accounting and financial reporting. Thus, most deficiencies were found in terms of evaluation and registration of assets, registration in the accounting of land and buildings, delimitation and registration of assets in cadastral bodies, compliance with financial discipline and commitments in the absence of budget allocations, etc. In this context, several audit observations were highlighted, which formed the basis for issuing the qualified audit opinion.
During 2019-2020, the contracting authorities within the system of the Ministry of Internal Affairs made public procurements in the total amount of 1364.2 million lei, including 124.0 million lei are communal services, which do not fall under the incidence of Law no. 131/2015 on public procurement.
The public procurements carried out within the MIA did not fully meet the fundamental principles applied in this field. The problems identified relate in particular to the inadequate regulation of the work of procurement working groups within contracting authorities; unrealistic and inaccurate planning of the needs for procurement of goods, works and services or delay of procurement procedures, resulting in non-recovery of allowances; drawing up the award documentation and the works procurement contracts in the absence of projects and general estimates of expenses, expertly regulated; irregular payment of advances to an international organization for works that have exceeded a period of four years, without submitting the works; when signing the procurement contracts, the non-regulation from the economic operators designated as winners of the guarantee of good execution of the contract; division of contracts by applying public procurement procedures, especially of low value, etc.
The Court of Accounts concluded that the records negatively influenced the processes of estimating, planning and executing the budgets of the contracting authorities in conjunction with the principles of good governance, limited the transparency and efficiency of public procurement within the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
At the end of the meeting, Tatiana Cunețchi, PFCC’s President, urged the Ministry of Internal Affairs to focus on ensuring financial discipline, reviewing activities aimed at improving the audited areas and applying maximum caution in the use of public money.
