Panel adopts final account of PACC for fiscal yr 2016-2017
Bonuses paid without regard to rules
KUWAIT CITY, June 14: The Budget and Final Accounts Committee of the National Assembly has adopted the draft law of the final account of the Public Authority for Combating Corruption PACC for fiscal 2016-2017 and a draft law linking the budget of the Authority for the financial year 2018-2019 to the Financial Supervisory Authority, reports Al-Qabas daily.
According to the report, the final account 2016-2017 of the AntiCorruption Commission showed the expenditures were 10.8 million dinars compared to about 43 thousand dinars revenues and that the expenses of the budget for 20182019 is estimated at 8.5 million dinars compared to revenues of 35 thousand dinars.
The Ministry of Finance covers the difference between the Commission’s expenditure and its revenues, which is known as government funding.
The Board of Auditors has made 8 comments on the Commission report. The Commission then took action to settle the observations recorded in accordance with the report of the Audit Bureau sent in this regard — the number of observations made 8, settled three, partially settled one, and pending one.
As for the internal control systems and their effectiveness, the report confirmed that the Office of Inspection and Audit has been established in the organizational structure. However, it is ineffective for not completing the posts in the office and not submitting reports.
The Financial Supervisory Authority said the volume of transactions in the implementation of the final account was more than 200 transactions, the authority recorded 5 financial irregularities and 4 cases of abstention was passed by the head of the Authority.
The non-loading of each fiscal year in respect of the expenses of the most prominent financial irregularities, focused on the omissions on granting bonuses, incentives, allowances, monetary and in-kind benefits in contravention of the controls of the organization or without obtaining prior approval of the competent authorities.
The observations were as follows: Violation of the decision of the Civil Service Commission on the salary scale of the senior, supervisory and executive positions, in addition to benefits, allowances and bonuses for the staff of the Commission.
The Audit Bureau observed that the Anti Corruption Authority paid some bonuses without the adoption of rules and regulations to be regulated by the Board of Trustees or the statement of eligibility of employees.
The financial impact of 678,000 dinars, 64% of the total approved from the budget for the fiscal year ended 2017/2016, where the Authority is supposed to establish the rules and regulations governing the disbursement of the estimated amounts in the budget for the new financial year 2019/2018, amounting to 728,000 dinars and verify the entitlements of staff members.
Second, reconsidering the ratios of admission criteria in the recruitment of the commission, the committee continues to emphasize its previous findings in its reports that admission and recruitment criteria are based on measurable objective criteria and that the proportion of the interview within 10 percent is similar to that of other government agencies with high demand for job seekers achieving the principle of equal opportunity.
In case of failure to comply with the law of its establishment, the AntiCorruption Commission delayed in approving the executive regulations in violation of Article 57 of its establishment law.
The article states that the executive regulations shall be issued within two months of issuance of the law. The regulation was issued after 9 months, according to the report of the Audit Bureau. The activities of the members of the Board of Trustees of the Commission and its employees, as stated in Article 17 of the Law establishing the Authority.
At the end of its report, the Committee recommended that it should coordinate with the Ministry of Finance and relevant authorities to review the remuneration of the members of the Board of Trustees of the Commission both during their term of office and after their term of office in line with the general orientation of the State in rationalizing the expenses of the leaders.
This is in addition to activating the Office of Inspection and Audit in full because of its impact in reducing the administrative, financial and accounting observations that may be the organizational units during the work and remediation before the occurrence, and filled with the appropriate and qualified career staff, and strengthen the internal regulations in coordination with the regulatory bodies to ensure the safety of operations, financial and administrative audits in the future.
Also the rules and regulations regulating the payment of bonuses in the Authority should be approved by the Board of Trustees and the objective of the employees’ entitlement to them.
Another item is the need to reconsider the issue of the distribution of the criteria for admission to employment, especially the element of “personal interview” to be within the limit of 10 percent of the total acceptance rate to achieve the principle of equal opportunities between applicants.
Finally, the necessity of the Commission’s commitment to the provisions of Article 17 of the law of its establishment, which provides for the issuance of a regulation governing the activities of the members of the Board of Trustees of the Commission and its current and former employees.