In the course of last year, the Court of Auditors carried out audits at 575 public entities and identified irregularities to the value of 20.8 billion lei. The progress report for 2016 was presented on April 20, IPN reports.

Court of Auditors chairman Veaceslav Untila told a news conference that the most serious deviations were identified at the Ministry of Finance – over 6 million lei, at the Chisinau municipality – 4 billion lei, in the ATU Gagauzia – 1.6 billion lei. Irregularities amounting to millions of lei were also discovered at the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Defense, the National Health Insurance Company and in districts. “This does not mean that the money was stolen, but it was managed badly or misused,” said the Court’s chairman.

Based on the audit, about 1,500 recommendations were formulated in 2016 and these should be implemented by the second half of this year. The Court of Auditors is to check if the entities took into account the recommendations and will notify the competent parliamentary commissions when these are ignored. According to Veaceslav Untila, the Court of Auditors can impose fines on the managers of institutions that committed violations, but no penalties have been imposed since last summer, when the new members of the Court were appointed.