Weaknesses in compliance with the provisions of relevant Laws and Regulations, as well as deficiencies in expense control and incomplete compliance with the circulars of the General Accounting Office of the Republic, are noted in a report by the Audit Service regarding the Ministry of Justice.
The report concerning the administration of the ministry, prisons, and the fire service (a special report on the police was published in 2023 with a plethora of observations) emphasizes that the majority of the individual findings that emerged mostly pertained to deficiencies in the implementation of established procedures.
For this purpose, the Audit Service recommends the establishment of a reliable internal control system to ensure compliance with relevant regulatory provisions and procedures, as well as monitoring and implementation of the Service’s recommendations within the framework of the principles of good governance.
As stated in the report posted today on the Audit’s website, there are NGOs that, although they received funding for a program, have not submitted documentation or have not completed their actions.
The Audit recommends examining the possibility of taking legal action to recover amounts for which non-compliance is observed by the Organizations/individuals.
Additionally, due to the fact that many pending programs/actions concern Organizations that also receive annual grants from the Ministry of Interior, the possibility of withholding the advance payment given from next year’s annual grant should be explored.
As informed by the Ministry of Finance on 3.11.2023, the return of €3,700 remains outstanding from the above, concerning a program/action from 2017 and two from 2021.
Furthermore, it was informed that the possibility of amending the Grants Scheme is under consideration.
Also, it was found that some released prisoner supervisors have a large number of prisoners under their supervision, resulting in them working for a large number of hours per month.
An indicative case is mentioned where a supervisor’s working hours exceed 300 hours per month, instead of 192, i.e., supervising 15 prisoners, posing risks of ineffective performance of duties and a decrease in the quality of work, considering that prisoner supervision on leave is very time-consuming and demanding.
Recommendation: For more effective performance of supervisors’ duties, a maximum number of prisoners that a supervisor can supervise should be determined.
“Differences continue to appear in the balances of individual prisoner accounts compared to the total balance of the deposits account maintained in the General Accounting Office’s automated system.
From 2015 to date, accounting errors in the balances of individual prisoner accounts remain undetermined, which we consider concerning, considering that cases of abuse have been identified in the past in these accounts.
Our Service considers the issue as high risk and deems it necessary for efforts to be made for its immediate resolution.
“The registration of a total amount of €143,132, relating to a specific transaction, in the Commitments Registry, remains outstanding, in violation of the provisions of the relevant circular of the General Accounting Office.
Temporary guards have not passed the exams provided for in their Service Plan. We recommend that their increment be withheld until they pass the aforementioned exams, as provided by the relevant Regulations.
