An audit performed by the Court of Auditors revealed serious deficiencies in the management of the resources of the National Ecological Fund in 2017. The audit report was examined in a meeting on June 26, IPN reports.

According to the situation on December 31, 2017, the National Ecological Fund manages 345 investment projects where the value of contract works is 3.29 billion lei, including the Fund’s contribution of about 2.8 billion lei.

The Fund’s resources last year were 79.5% used, this being the lowest level in the period between 2014 and 2017. The Board’s work was mainly focused on quantitative growth and less on the qualitative one. This significantly reduced the efficiency in using the allocated funds. Sun a situation is first of all due to the subjective assessment of the investment projects, which are selected in the absence of priority criteria. Some of the projects were approved with a delay, while others were examined as a matter of urgency.

Large financial reserves were used to cover costs that do not match the purpose of the National Ecological Fund. It was established that the Fund financed projects that do not meet the eligibility criteria at the selection and approval stages. The tender contests involved the same economic operators. Some of these implement in parallel a number of investment projects and the works within these were suspended owing to the lack of funds.

The procurement and acceptance of works carried out as part of the investment projects financed by the Fund took place with deviations from the relevant regulations. The contractors didn’t invoice executed works and 1.4 million lei in VAT could not be collected into the state budget as a result.

The way in which the projects are financed leads to the artificial rise in the value of the contract works. Eight contracts to the total value of 176.3 million lei have 21 additional agreements on augmentation based on the inflation rate, the value of the initial contracts  being increased by 9,600 lei.

According to the conclusion of the audit team, to increase the efficiency of using the money allocated from the National Ecological Fund, the mechanisms and procedures used by this need to be considerably improved at all the stages, such as preselection, approval, financing, implementation, monitoring, completion and assessment of the impact and progress made in implementing the investment projects.