Municipalities’ internal control system – Audit of the establishment and operation of the internal control system of municipalities – on the audit of Rudabánya
Incomplete internal control The SAI Hungary published the compliance audit of the establishment and operation of the internal control system, as well as certain investment decisions, their implementation and accounting at the Local Government of Rudabánya. Apart from positive findings, some accounting irregularities and insufficient controls established to ensure organisational integrity were pointed out.
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Audit of the Government, Government-guaranteed and Municipal Debt Management Information Systems in the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Bulgaria
? 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 ... 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 ... ... 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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Correlations between the operational risks of companies in the majority ownership of local governments and the financial situation of the local governments
Risks related to local governments-owned companies The Hungarian SAI analysed four risk areas, taking 19 aspects and the specificities of Hungary’s settlement patterns into consideration. The four areas defined were the following: performance of public tasks, exercise of proprietary rights, financial stability of local governments, and short and medium-term stability of the financial management of companies.
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The Annual Municipal Accounts as a basis for comparing municipalities - are the cost indicator reliable?
Municipal accounting: more standardized or more controlled Municipalities report among others, their costs, which cannot be directly attributed to any specific activity, product, or service. Standardized taxonomies exist, but they are not applied uniformly. Swedish NAO traces ramifications: lower ability to compare municipalities' data and need of more central level control.
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Open Data Trend Report 2015
How to activate the open data policy The Dutch SAI looks for ways to improve open data practice in the Netherlands. They point at experience of two leading countries: UK and US, and advise to: prepare a concrete action plan, to increase number of mandatory published data, to develop government-wide data inventory and to put open data to work.
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Digitisation of municipal services
The purpose of digitisation is to increase the quality and efficiency of public services. It is a goal to make online services the norm for public administration's communication with citizens ... and the private sector. The municipal sector is a significant provider of public services, and digitisation of municipal services is therefore essential for achieving this goal.<br/>The audit surveyed the status ... , assessed the significance of and possible obstacles to digitisation of municipal services. The audit examined how the Ministry of Local Government and Modernisation's use of policy instruments contributes ... ... Municipalities have not digitised their services to any extent ... Digitisation increases the quality and efficiency of public services and municipal sector is a significant provider of public services. Report of Riksrevisjonen of Norway shows however ... , that municipalities need a substantial support to execute this demanding task. To provide them with help, the central government has to coordinate own efforts first.
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Submission of data to national databases in municipalities, towns and cities
The National Audit Office analysed the activities of the database managers following a ruling made by the Supreme Court in 2010, which stated that the public functions assigned to local authorities ... must be clearly financed from the state budget. It was also assessed whether the measures taken by database managers have been sufficient to guarantee that local authorities submit all required data ... and that these data are correct. ... ... Funds as basic factor of data processing ... The NAO of Estonia audited the activities of state agencies in the management of the database selected for the audit, to which local authorities are obliged to submit data. It was found that in most ... cases the state does not compensate the costs of data submission for local governments.
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Software management assessment in local governments and local government educational institutions
Objective of the audit was to verify compliance of software recording and management with regulatory enactments, as well as to assess the effectiveness of software management in local governments ... and local government educational institutions. ... ... Software management assessment in local governments and local government educational institutions ... Manage your software! Local governments and local government education institution neglect basic safety procedures, use outdated or illegal kinds of software, use two and more different software ... for the same function.
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