Audit of the Government, Government-guaranteed and Municipal Debt Management Information Systems in the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Bulgaria
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 ... and Documentation; Application Controls. ... ... Even effective and modern IT systems require improvements and updates to ensure their security and accountability ... 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 ... 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 ... that need further improvement and optimization.
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The implementation of national IT projects in social and health care
IT management expenditure in public administration totalled about 2.1 billion euros in 2009. IT management expenditure by local authorities and federations of municipalities in the field of health ... care totalled about 270 million euros ino 2009. Health care's share of IT management expenditure in public administration thus amounted to about 13 per cent in 2009. ... ... IT-centred manner of project implementation can harm IT investments' results ... SAI Finland perfomed a vast review of IT projects in health and social protection. Many interesting findings cover structural problems, as 'Many separate systems with no future' and characteristics ... of poor governance, as 'No cost monitoring - unclear objectives - arguable usefulness'.
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IT Police Systems
and organization of the project turned out to make the difference. Accordance with the public procurement law was not part of the audit as a separate investigation in that matter was carried by respective Polish ... Implementation by the Polish Police of two IT projects (E-police station and Command Support System - CSS) was audited. Both systems were to relieve the Police officers and increase the quality ... and effectiveness of their work. Audit explained the reason of failure in the case of E-police station project and success in the case of CSS. Although some irregularities occurred in both cases, careful planning ... ... A textbook example of how not to implement the IT projects ... Polish NIK compared the implementation of two flagship IT projects of the Police HQ: successful 'Command Support System' and problematic 'E-police station'. List of interesting problems appeared...
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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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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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Performance Audit of Public Debt Management Information Systems
The usage and development of the information technologies in public financial management is an important priority of the country at the phase of intensive implementation of electronic governance ... (E-Governance). The fact that information systems play crucial role in the business processes of the Ministry of Finance affects the state and the public in general. <br/> Bearing in mind the role and importance ... of information systems in the public debt management process and having considered legal requirements to information security, State Audit Office of Georgia conducted Performance Audit of Public Debt Management ... ... More effective IT governance needed ... Importance of effective performance of public debt management e-systems may be explained by the world’s increased dependence on such systems. In parallel with the performance audit of debt management ... information systems of the Ministry Of Finance of Georgia, Supreme Audit Institutions of 11 countries also studied this topic, both in terms of systems’ performance and their practical application by local ... financial institutions. Audit conducted by the State Audit Office of Georgia has revealed security and governance shortcomings related to management and usage of these systems.
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Protection of automatically processed personal data
Over the past few years, a number of legal, management, supervision, information, and methodological issues related to the protection of personal data have piled up. As they have not been fully ... resolved,the National Audit Office conducted an audit to assess the efficiency of the protection and supervision of automatically processed personal data and to check whether: - the regulation of personal data ... protection conforms to the data processing practices; - personal data is properly processed at public sector bodies; - the State Data Protection Inspectorate (SDPI) performs sufficient supervision ... ... Data protection needs a long term strategy ... Rapid development of information and communication technology continuously brings about issues of personal data protection. Due to lack of long-term vision in this area they are frequently ... not addressed by the existing legislation. Moreover, SAI of Lithuania revealed failures in organization and control of personal data protection by public sector.
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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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