More watchful supervision is needed for the use of European Union funds

In 2008, European Union (EU) funds management and control system conformed to requirements of European institutions and operated efficiently, says the National Audit Office in the Report for 2008. The NAOL gave a qualified opinion, since there was no possibility to evaluate the practical operation of some key elements of the management and control systems. According to the Auditor General Rasa Budbergytė, certain findings of the audit show that public institutions should improve the management of funds and enhance the control of their use.

In the opinion of the Auditor General, in 2008 the use of the EU structural assistance in Lithuania was slow; only LTL 705 million, or 2.26 per cent of all the planned funds had been used until the beginning of 2009. However, even this amount was not declared to the European Commission until the beginning of 2009, therefore auditors were not able to evaluate their use. In the beginning of the programming period, the use of funds was mostly impeded by the drawn-out drafting of legislation both in the EU and Lithuanian institutions.

Evaluating the funds management and control system, the auditors pointed out that functions of public institutions were not clearly defined, tasks were not specifically formulated; the supervision of their implementation was not sufficient. The auditors recommended to take measures preventing the financing of projects from several sources.

In the 2007-2013 financial period Lithuania will receive LTL 23 billion assistance from European Union Regional Development, Cohesion and Social Funds, which will be allocated to the development of human resources, growth of economy, promotion of cohesion and technical assistance. These action programmes are managed and controlled by three Departments of the Ministry of Finance, and their implementation involves 16 public institutions. Upon assignment of the Parliament the NAOL conducts the audit of the use of assistance and submits annual audit reports to the European Commission.


Public audit report is available in Lithuanian:
Audit Report on Costs of Operational Programmes Implementing Lithuanian Strategy for the Use of European Union Structural Assistance for 2007-2013 Towards Achieving the Convergence Objective and Operation of the Management and Control System in 2008