Audit of the Government, Government-guaranteed and Municipal Debt Management Information Systems in the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Bulgaria
and Documentation; Application Controls. ... The main audit question studied during the audit was: Are the government, government-guaranteed (SDMS) and municipal debt management information systems (CMDR) at the Ministry of Finance effective ... ? The audit covered the period from 01.01.2013 to 31.12.2013 and investigated four major areas: IT system strategy and general management; IT security and controls against disasters; Operational controls ... ... Even effective and modern IT systems require improvements and updates to ensure their security and accountability ... the established system is effective and provides updated, complete and correct information. Nevertheless the audit report points out areas of security, application controls as well as documentation as the subjects ... For the management of the government, government-guaranteed and municipal debt the Ministry of Finance has established an advanced integrated information infrastructure. According to Bulgarian SAI ... that need further improvement and optimization.
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State funds spent on development, operation and using of data centres services
The aim of the audit was to scrutinise the management of funds spent on building and operating the national data centre (hereinafter “STC1 data centre”), including the expenditure of selected ... organisational units of the state on buying hosting, server-housing and other related services. The audited period was between 2010 and 2014; where relevant, the preceding period was also scrutinised. Audited ... entities: Ministry of the Interior (“MoI”); Ministry of Finance (“MoF”); STÁTNÍ TISKÁRNA CENIN, state firm (state banknote printing firm, hereinafter “STC” or “the state firm”). The audit was conducted ... ... Risks steming from uncoordinated strategy ... SAI of Czech Republic analysed consequences of failures in strategic IT management at the state level. Lack of coordination and implementation rules reduced practical role of the ministry whose task ... was to guard high quality standards for all crucial IT systems in the state administration. Next consecquences were (among others) risk of uneconomical results of large IT investment and risk of inefficient ... supply of services, as well as opposite results of workforce reduction.
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VETERANS’ HEALTH CARE - Preliminary Observations on VHA’s Claims Processing Delays and Efforts to Improve the Timeliness of Payments to Community Providers
Due to increases in expenditures and utilization of VA care in the community services in recent years, VHA has had difficulty processing claims in a timely manner. In planning to consolidate its ... existing VA care in the community programs, as required by law, the agency said it will examine strategies for improving the timeliness and accuracy of its payments to community providers.<br ... /> This statement, which is based on ongoing work, summarizes GAO’s preliminary observations about (1) VHA’s, Medicare’s, and TRICARE’s claims processing timeliness in fiscal year 2015; (2) factors that have impeded ... Data processing hold back by technology limitation, workload and administrative burden ... US GAO analyzed all factors of slower processing and user unfriendliness that occur sometimes to the veterans healthcare. The main focus is data processing - and it has been proved that it can ... be failing not only because of technology, but also because of work-process design, staff and organisation.
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Traffic Ticketing information system
The audit included two areas of focus - the environment surrounding the Traffic Ticketing Information System - the System (designed to input, process, manage and collect payment for the traffic ... tickets) and also the internal environment of the System that guarantees the quality of its performance and safety. ... Security can hinder effectiveness ... SAI of Kuwait analysed system supporting collection of the traffic tickets - data input, processing and management. What was found was lack of basic safety measures, that hindered the effectiveness ... of the system.
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Preparations and realization of the State A-levels
The aim of the audit was to scrutinise the utilisation of the state budget and EU budget funds that had been spent on preparing and implementing the State A-levels examinations. The auditing ... operation was performed from May to November 2011. The audited period extended from January 1, 2005, to June 30, 2011; where relevant, the data from the previous period and the period until the end ... of the auditing operation were also scrutinized. Among the audited bodies were the Ministry of Education, the Education Result Survey Centre, and the National Institute for Further Education. The auditing operation ... ... Begin with good strategy ... Analyzing problems of state examinations system, Czech Republic SAI found that commonplace strategy effected in shortsighted planning, poor procurement and disadvantageous contracting.
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Management of Information Resources of the Ministry of the Interior
Many activities of the Ministry of the Interior require the use of information resources that are of great significance to the entire State, such as the state and departmental registers, and public ... information systems. Whereas the Ministry has failed to implement some of the public audit recommendations of 2007 and 2010,6 we analysed, whether there have been any positive changes in the field of IT ... management. Their impact is important not only because the Ministry manages 16 information resources, which ensure data availability to the population, efficient activity of the services, and operation ... ... Process maturity examination can help in IT audit ... Main risk areas in case of this audit were strategic and organisational - Ministry’s weak ownership of IT resources, insufficient audit and internal control function. SAI Lithuania auditors found ... also flaws in change management and security processes. But the finding, which gave them the key to the root cause of problems, was connected with maturity assessment of the auditee's IT processes.
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Effectiveness of the Tax Administration of the Republic of Slovenia in the execution of modernisation projects of the Slovenian duty information system and decreasing the number of duty sub-accounts
The Tax Administration of the Republic of Slovenia (hereinafter: the Tax Administration) is responsible for collecting taxes, fees and other compulsory levies (hereinafter: duties ... ). These are the revenue of the state budget, municipal budgets, the Health Insurance Institute of Slovenia, the Institute for Pension and Disability Insurance of Slovenia (hereinafter: duties recipients) and indirectly ... of the European Union budget. In order to improve its operations, the Tax Authority decided to modernise the Slovenian duties’ collection information system. It used this opportunity to implement also a second ... ... Shaky coordination of investments in important systems ... Slovenian SAI traced a series of problems in management of crucial IT investments in tax administration. Apart from promising goals, unclear business case gave a start to many problems at next stages ... of the project, involving additional spendings, delays and errors in data processing.
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Management and protection of assets in the field of the information-communication technologies at the ME SR
The Supreme Audit office of the Slovak Republic (SAO SR) has conducted the audit at the Ministry of Environment of the Slovak Republic (ME SR) for the audit period 2011 and 2012 to examine ... the compliance with the generally binding legal regulations and the general statues in the field of the information-communication technologies (ICT) and the information systems of the public administration (ISPA ... ) with emphasis on the use of the information technology (IT) services provided by the third parties. The vast amount of irregularities was found, especially many cases of failure to comply with the standards ... ... Started from contracting, ended in security ... The perceptive and filled with findings audit - conducted by the Slovak SAI - discovered the list of issues which started in careless contracting procedures, failure to update the development concept ... and ended in exposing the organization to high security risks.
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State aid for IT projects in social and health care
In 2000-2009 about 180 million euros in national and European Union funds went to finance information technology projects in social and health care, not including the costs of developing national ... information system services (KanTa project) or the National Project for Social Services IT (Tikesos project). Financing has been provided by the Ministry of Social Affairs and H ealth, the Finnish Funding ... Agency for Technology and Innovation (Tekes), regional councils (previously state provincial offices), and indirectly by the Slot Machine Association under the direction of the Ministry of Social Affairs ... Difficult coordination of IT projects ... Finish Audit Office analyzed results of poor cooperation between authorities on national and local level in social and health care projects: difficult integration of information systems and poor ... coordination of the financing information technology projects, including double financing.
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Audit on the broadband internet infrastructure access
Poland has been granted over PLN 4 billion from the European Regional Development Fund to build the broadband internet access infrastructure. As part of three operational programmes 90 percent ... of assumed financing was contracted, namely PLN 3.9 billion. By the end of 2015, Poland should complete the investment and account for the expenses. According to NIK there is a risk that the infrastructure ... construction will not be completed by the deadline and the EU funds may not be used to the full. ... ... Simpler regulations and better supervision needed ... Polish SAI audited a project, which aim had been to develop broadband internet network across the country. They revealed that legal obstacles, idleness and lack of supervision were the main causes ... of delays. Some of the projects are in danger of not being completed on time and some of the EU funds may not be fully used.
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