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.
Full description

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.
Full description

The Swedish Transport Administrations support to research and innovation
Robust internal control required to manage innovations The Swedish agency dealing with transport innovations did not use sufficient control over its research funds, shows the audit of the Swedish National Audit Office. The deficiencies include risk analysis, administrative procedures and management of taxpayers' money.
Full description

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Avoid mistakes in housing allowance recovery Housing allowance recovery rules are complex and outdated.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.
Full description

Supply of food and medicinal products
Supply of food and medicinal products Deficiencies in emergency preparedness and weaknesses in governance are still found by the Swedish NAO in the system of safeguarding supply of food and medicinal products. The system is complex and NAO appreciates efforts made by responsible agencies. However, they found also insufficient clarity in division of responsibilities and weaknesses in coordinantion.
Full description

Information security work at nine agencies
Difficulties in achieving appropriate IT security Together with the Swedish NAO we assume that the picture that emerges at the agencies audited applies also to most of the other agencies in the public administration. The information security work is not given high enough priority in relation to the risks that exist. This applies to both the Government, which should have been clearer in its directions to agencies on this matter, and to agency managements, which did not give priority to the work of information security to the extent required. Much indicates that it is difficult for many agencies to achieve an appropriate level of information security work.
Full description

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.
Full description

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.
Full description