The financial situations compiled by the Council for the Prevention and Elimination of Discrimination and Ensuring of Equality by December 31, 2017 are inaccurate and are accompanied by distorting influenced by institutional and financial management that wasn’t adjusted to the principles of good governance. As a result, the information from the accounting balance was presented incompletely. Also, some of the salaries were paid unjustifiably, shows the Court of Auditors’ audit report that was presented in a public meeting on May 31, IPN reports.
The Council for the Prevention and Elimination of Discrimination and Ensuring of Equality was created five years ago as a collegial body with the status of legal entity of public law to ensure the protection against discrimination and the quality of all the persons, regardless of ethnicity, education, beliefs or orientation. In 2017, the Council managed allocations totaling 3.3 million lei. The budget was 91.7% fulfilled. The unused allocations came to 0.3 million lei last yearned. The accounting balance sheet shows the property managed by the Council was valued at about 2.072 million lei, while the debts totaled 172,200 lei.
The audit revealed that the property rented by the Council in 2015 based on a memorandum hasn’t been inventoried and included in the accounting records. The lack of an appropriate internal control led to the non-observance of the provisions of the regulations concerning the provision of the bonus for access to the state secret. Thus, the bonuses were paid to employees in the absence of an order and of procedures stipulated in the Law on the State Secret. Awards were conferred on professional holidays and nonworking days in a differentiated way. The regulations on government procurement weren’t respected either.
The Council’s chairman Ian Feldman said this was the first audit of the financial situations, the findings being useful to the institution. He pledged to ensure the swift formulation of the absent regulations, including of the regulations concerning the awarding of employees. He noted that owing to the low salaries, it is very hard to fill the vacancies, especially of qualified jurists.
The Council is to remove the identified discrepancies and to inform the Court of Auditors about the implementation of the recommendations within six months of the publication of the audit report in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Moldova.
