Benefits from the State investments may be higher
|
“Public institutions have tangible possibilities to more efficiently use investment funds,“ states the Auditor General Rasa Budbergytë summing up public audit on the use of State Investment Programme funds. “First of all, it is essential to have stricter selection of investment projects: this would allow to allocate funds to those projects, which may yield biggest economic benefit and enhance State assets”.
|
|
In the view of the National Audit Office, design of the SIP does not
ensure allocation of resources to only those investment projects, which
meet the priorities, are of high quality and promise economic or social
benefits.
The National Audit Office paid special attention to investment projects
of information society development, evaluation of which is assigned to
the Information Society Development Committee under the Government. The
audit report makes an observation that evaluation of projects is
subjective, since values of evaluation criteria are not determined; it
is not defined how much they influence attribution of a project to a
certain priority. Furthermore, significant changes in amounts of
appropriations and work scopes are made in such projects without any
coordination with the Information Society Development Committee,
therefore initial reconciliation of an investment project loses sense.
The National Audit Office concludes that investment projects of
information society development may often be financed from the European
Union funds instead of the State Budget funds.
It is proved by examples of the State Labour Inspectorate, the Archives
Department, etc., which applied for the State Budget funds, however, now
will seek to receive funding from the EU Structural Funds.
The National Audit Office gave specific recommendations on improvement
of drawing up of the State Investment Programme, as well as the plan for
implementation of recommendations to the Government, Ministry of Finance
and Information Society Development Committee.
Full report is available in Lithuanian:
Audit report State Investment Programme