Protection against fraud in migration activities at missions abroad
Migration activities can be a subject to fraud The audit showed that reports on alleged fraud in migration activities at missions abroad increased continually between 2014 and 2017. Altogether about 60 alleged cases of fraud were reported during the period, including selling interview appointments, stolen visa stickers, issuing visas on false grounds and prohibited searches in case management systems. Missions abroad, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Swedish Migration Board are all responsible for migration activities at missions abroad. The division of responsibility between them is sometimes unclear and difficult to assess. According to the Swedish NAO this leads to particular challenges in ensuring satisfactory and common protection against fraud at missions abroad. Ensuring protection is made even more difficult in that the missions abroad vary regarding in terms of size, case volume, case mix and risk exposure. In addition, for the missions abroad the internal control requirements are notsufficiently explicit.
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Population registration - uphill quality work
Quality of population register The Swedish NAO notes that quality requirements for population registration are highand that quality work should concentrate on the errors that have the most seriousconsequences for society. They point then at the need to increase knowledge of the errors, improve IT tools and governance to receive more quality work.
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The protection of valuable forest
Protection of valuable forest Protection of valuable forest land is an important mean of achieving the environmental quality objectives. Governments can establish formal protection of forests through the formation of national parks, biotope conservation areas, nature reserves or by signing nature conservation agreements. Beyond the state's formal protection of forests, the forest owners themselves are also expected to contribute through voluntary set-asides of forest. From a state perspective, it is important to investigate whether or not the resources for formal protection are being used cost-effectively. However, in order to achieve cost-effective formal protection work, the state also needs to address forest owners' voluntary set asides.
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Recovery of housing allowance - easy to make mistakes
Avoid mistakes in housing allowance recovery Housing allowance recovery rules are complex and outdated. What more, ad hoc changes can result in unpredicted deficiencies. The Swedish NAO found that monitoring and evaluation based analysis is of critical importance to avoid problems on the administration side - and what much more important: on the side of financialy vulnerable households.
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Incorrect payments in social insurance - Control activities of the Swedish Social Insurance Agency
In 2014 the social insurance system accounted for six per cent of GDP. The long-term sustainability of a system of that magnitude requires that the public perceives its purpose to be important ... , that it is well administered and that it is as free of abuse as possible. It must also be financially stable over time, since major fluctuations impact other areas of the central government budget. When ... these things function as they should, the system is perceived to be legitimate and enjoys public confidence.<br/> According to available estimations, almost SEK 20 billion had been paid out incorrectly from ... Balance of priorities needed to reduce incorrect payments ... Role of social insurance in public finance is so substantial that reduction of incorrect payments' volume is matter of huge savings. The Swedish NAO noted positive initiatives by the Social Insurance ... Agency in this regard. However they found also, that serious problems can stem from giving higher priority to the speed of payment and customers satisfaction. They both are undoubtedly important features ... of each system, still, the prevention of incorrect payments needs strategic support to be really effective.
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The Art of Governing – the Government’s management of cultural sector institutions
The Art of Influencing cultural institutions Cultural sector is characterised by a large number of small government agencies, companies, foundations and a large diversity of operational forms. Governments may then have problems with the risk of conflicting goals.
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For the sake of security – intelligence sharing between the Police Authority and the Swedish Security Service
Cooperation between Police and Security Service The Swedish NAO audited whether the Police Authority and the Swedish Security Service share intelligence effectively to prevent and combat violent extremism and terrorism. In this highly non-typical environment, some universal rules turned out to be still valid. We would like to emphasise role of : organizational patterns, information access rights and sincere feedback.
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Higher education institutions' provision of premises- room for improvement
How to pay for higher education institutions' premises Higher education institutions' rental costs constitute a significant part of central government rental expenses. Swedish NAO analysed results of reform, which aimed at more effective use of resources at central government agencies and more effective management of real property and assets for the State as a whole. Apart from the positive results as a whole, substantial room for improvement still exists: especially in identifying targets of costs, looking for incentives and in mitigating commercial approach to education institutions.
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