The audit reports issued by the State Audit Institution (“the SAI”) show
that the audit of financial statements and accounts of auditees
revealed that there are certain violations and practices in the
implementation of general budgets of those auditees which led to paying
or not collecting total amounts of one billion dirham.
Audits
of some samples of financial accounts of federal entities for the
financial year 2012 showed that about AED 125.2 million were disbursed
by ministries and federal general departments and that these entities
failed to collect about AED 14.7 million. The amounts disbursed or not
collected by the independent service authorities and entities equals
about AED 839 million within AED 25 million for independent (for-profit)
authorities. These funds represent the total amounts illegally
disbursed in conflict with the determined legislations and regulations
on the use of public funds. This is in addition to the total funds that
should have been collected in accordance with the related financial
regulations.
The SAI requested from the concerned entities to
recover and collect those funds and to fully comply with the
legislations and regulations on how to use and manage public funds
including the regulations and decrees issued by the Cabinet and
Ministerial Council for Services. The SAI underlined using financial
appropriations for the expenditures approved in the annual budget and
ensuring the availability of all the conditions that require paying
expenditure or collecting revenue in accordance with the effective
legislations.
The SAI also stressed on the importance of
activating the role of internal auditors in auditees and enabling them
to perform their professional duties independently in addition to
tightening control on government procurement and making monthly
reconciliations in respect of collecting revenues and transferring them
to the general treasury of the UAE periodically in accordance with the
financial plans approved and as stated in the annual budget of each
entity. The SAI pointed out that it is necessary that the entities
monitor service providers who are assigned to carry out some
responsibilities of government entities such as those related to
collecting revenues from customers and beneficiaries of government
services on behalf of some government departments. This is in order to
ensure compliance of those service providers with imposing fees within
the limit determined according to the legislations and regulations and
that all the amounts collected are transferred to the general treasury
of the UAE.
