The local public authorities inefficiently manage the public funds, while the Audit Office’s recommendations for remedying the identified irregularities are not respected, said Tatiana Savva, expert of the Independent Analytical Center “Expert-Grup”, IPN reports.
Tatiana Savva told a news conference that the total value of the irregularities identified by the Audit Office annually is over 8 billion lei. One third of these irregularities are committed by the local public authorities. The irregularities do not refer to the money lost or spent for the wrong purpose. But practice shows that 10% of the misused money is lost.
The expert transmitted questionnaires to the local public authorities in order to determine the causes for the irregularities. These mentioned the lack of capacities to manage the incomes and costs and the local public property, the shortage of specialists and the inconsistency of the legal framework.
The central public authorities cannot penalize the local administration for the committed irregularities, but the executive could launch campaigns to communicate with the local authorities so that these are taught to correctly manage the money and property, said the expert of the think tank.
When the new Law on Local Public Finances takes effect, the local authorities will start to manage the public money and property themselves. In 2014 the budgets of the local public authorities were of over 11 billion lei, 7 billion lei of which represented the allocations from the state budget.
