Necessary to Strengthen EU External Border
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“Lithuania having joined the Schengen Area state border control system was not properly adjusted”, – said the Auditor General Ms Rasa Budbergytë evaluating results of the audit conducted in the State Border Guard Service (SBGS). According to Ms Budbergytë SBGS distributed border guards ineffectively at the internal and external borders, did not use funds sparingly, the number of unauthorised border crossings increased when offenders are not apprehended. “It were possible to avoid most of the problems if reform implementers had a clear vision on how European Union internal border controls should have been adjusted after Lithuania have joined the Schengen Area”, stressed the Auditor General. |
It was determined that the State Border Control System Development Programme
which was supposed to determine main directions for state border controls
adjustment has not been updated since its publication in 2002 therefore it could
not be followed when adjusting state border control system after Lithuania has
joined the Schengen Area. As there were no clear strategic guidance state
institutions acted at their own discretion therefore adjustment was delayed and
didn’t go smoothly.
During the audit it was determined that after Lithuania has joined the Schengen
Area and has removed border controls between Latvia and between Poland, SBGS
didn’t undertake the necessary means to further strengthen European Union
external border controls with officers working at the internal border. For
instance Pagëgiai Border District charged with controlling border with Russia
was understaffed by 100 officers in 2007-2008, it was controlled by only half of
dog handlers at internal border compared with Ðiauliai District. Officers on
duty at internal border till 2009 were only occasionally sent on assignments to
districts controlling external borders.
Auditors denoted that due to understaffing at EU external border, border
offender apprehension rate decreased. For instance, in 2008 198 out of 324 or 61
per cent of border offences were not apprehended, only traces of unauthorised
border crossing were detected whereas in the first nine months of 2009 already
185 cases of border crossing traces were detected which makes more than 62
percent of all border offences. Therefore in the opinion of the National Audit
Office SBGS performs its main function of protecting state border insufficiently
effectively.
Audit report also denotes that funds for staff education and training to work at
the border are not always used sparingly. It was determined that SBGS does not
ingather all the costs related to training at the Border Guard School from
students who did not work in internal service a set period of time after their
studies, left their studies without justifiable reason or were excluded from
school for violations or poor attainment.
Based on auditors calculations actually ingathered amount of training costs (approximately
4-7 thousand Litas) is almost four times less than amount required to educate
one student.
The National Audit Office provided proposals to the Ministry of Internal Affairs
and the State Border Guard Service concerning more effective organisation of
state border control and more sparing use of state budget funds. A part of the
recommendations were implemented already during the audit.
Public audit report is available in Lithuanian:
Activity of the State Border Guard Service