Follow-up Audit: Follow-up Reports, 2017 by the National Audit Office

Charles Deguara, Auditor General presented to Dr Anglu Farrugia, Speaker of the House a compendium of follow-up reports carried out on a number of audits undertaken over the past few years.
Starting from this year, the National Audit Office (NAO) has decided to effectively monitor, on a regular basis, the level of implementation of the various recommendations put forward in past NAO reports. This will help in ensuring that shortcomings and issues identified in past audits are being duly addressed by management according to the established timeframes. Such implementation provides added value in evaluating whether taxpayers’ money is being used wisely and within the prevailing financial rules and regulations.

This Office has therefore decided to launch this Follow-up publication whereby an analysis on the level of implementation of various audit reports falling under the Performance (Value for Money), Financial and Compliance and Special Audit and Investigations Sections is undertaken. It also provides the necessary thrust for the public service to extend its work on the Governance Action on the NAO’S Annual Report issued by the Office of the Principal Permanent Secretary for the first time in 2016, an initiative that this Office commends, to other type of audits covered by the NAO.

An analysis on the degree of implementation of this Office’s recommendations was undertaken on the following past audits:

• Gozo Channel (Operations) Ltd.
• Rehabilitation Hospital Karin Grech – Personal Emoluments
• Ministry for Sustainable Development, the Environment and Climate Change
• Police Department – Personal Emoluments
• St. Vincent de Paul Residence
• Welfare Committee
• Housing Authority’s Procurement of Repair Works on Residential Units
• Physical Education and Sports in State Primary and Secondary Schools
• The Management of Elective Surgery Waiting Lists
• The Provision of Residentail Long-Term Care for the Elderly through Contractual Arrangements with the Private Sector
• An Analysis of the National Lotteries Good Causes Fund

This Office is pleased to note that, in the large majority of cases, recommendations were addressed or are being considered by the Ministries concerned, though a number of issues remain outstanding.

This Office intends to continue to publish such Follow-up Reports on a regular annual basis.