Provisions of the current regulations concerning the approval, allocation and use of financial resources from the Vine and Wine Fund weren’t observed. As a result, additional costs of 28 million lei were incurred for financing the Fund, while 35.1 million lei accumulated in the accounts of the National Office of Vine and Wine during several years remained unused, says an audit report on the management of the Fund that was examined by the public finance control commission, IPN reports.
“The carried out audit procedures revealed problems and faults in the management of the Fund. These limited the efficiency and efficacy of the management of the allocated funds and prevented the achievement of the set objectives,” runs the report.
The audit mission identified a series of faults. After the National Office of Vine and Wine was given a double status, the Vine and Wine Fund has two different annual budgets. One budget is approved through the state budget law, while the other one by the Coordination Board. In both of the budgets, the auditors identified unreasonable diminutions and increases both in the revenues and the expenditure sections. Also, financing was approved for additionally agreed measures without identifying coverage sources of about 2.8 million lei. There were identified unplanned and extra costs.
According to the audit, the imperfection of the mechanism for managing, collecting and recording contributions and penalties into the Vine and Wine Fund and for following the debts to the Fund resulted in the segmented management of debts. Insufficient measures were taken to collect the debts to the Fund.
The Court of Auditors and the public finance control commission requested the National Office of Vine and Wine, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Agriculture, Regional Development and Environment to take measures to implement the recommendations formulated in the audit report. The report was transmitted to the Prosecutor General’s Office for this to familiarize itself and take the required measures.
