NAO findings tend to be ignored, Auditor General says

Malta’s Auditor General, Charles Deguara, has complained that his office’s continuous work and recommendations to promote better governance inside the public sector, are not taken on board and that their findings are now becoming repetitive year after year.

These findings include familiar complaints about the government’s inner workings and: procurement issues, insufficient internal controls, deficiencies in contract provisions for public services, shortcomings in contract management, absence of value for money and lack of transparency and accountability.

Deguara said the National Audit Office now intends to strengthen its follow-up process to ensure the timely and efficient implementation of its recommendations, in a foreword to the NAO operations annual report. 

“Nonetheless, we welcomed as an important step forward, the Administration’s report on the status of implementation of our recommendations made in the Annual Audit Report on Public Accounts for 2014. This analysis could provide the necessary stimulus for the authorities concerned in undertaking the necessary action to address administrative shortcomings identified by this Office,” Deguara said of the Labour government’s follow-up on the NAO report of that year.

The Auditor General also said the NAO would enhance the structure and format of its reports to render them more readable and user-friendly. “It is our intention to simplify our reporting of the results and recommendations arising from our work. In this way, audit reports would be more accessible to the public, who would be able to further appreciate the extent and relevance of our work.”

2016 has been a challenging year for the National Audit Office, which published a total of 16 reports, equal to the record achieved in 2014. These consisted of one annual audit report on public accounts for 2015, an audit report on the workings of local government for 2015, seven performance audit reports, five special audits and investigations, one IT Audit Report, and one Annual Report on the Work and Activities of NAO for 2015.

The reports covered a variety of critical areas such as health, education and social issues, and have received extensive media coverage.