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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Ministry of Education realized corrective measures incorrectly
The audited bodies were Ministry of Education (ME), Ministry of Informatics (MI), Institute for Educational Information, regional authorities of Liberec and Plzeň, and 42 chosen primary, secondary ... , and high schools, as well as some other educational facilities. (See the complete list of chosen schools enclosed to the audit report.). ... ... Educational project managed ineffectively ... Several problems - from documentation to ineffectiveness - in designing and financing were found by the Czech SAI in a government program: the Funding Conception for Communication Services at Schools.
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Information Technology Cost Estimation Agencies Need to Address Significant Weakness in Policies and Practices
To estimate reliable cost for the sucess of an IT program by providing the basis for the informed decision making and realistic budget information. To assess the extent to which selected departments ... and agencies have appropriately implement costestimating policies an procedures(four caracteristics of a reliable cost estimation: comprehensive, well-documented, accurate, credible). ... IT cost estimation ... Check out what may go wrong with the information technology cost estimation. Results of the US GAO audit can help to identify high risk areas: comprehensiveness of estimations, their documentation ... , lack of adequacy and inadequate implementation.
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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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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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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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Maintenance efficiency in the rail network
The primary objective of railway politics is to contribute to ensure that users of the transport service have good railway options. The Norwegian National Rail Administration is organised under ... the Ministry of Transport and Communications, and its responsibilities include operation, maintenance and development of the State's railway infrastructure. The maintenance activities must safeguard safety ... , fixed assets and operational stability of the railway system. The most important objective for the maintenance is to reduce the scope of operational interruptions, and to facilitate better punctuality ... ... Rail network maintenance - negative balance of costs and results ... SAI Norway evaluated efficiency of the railway maintenance and found that its costs increased nearly 110 per cent in years 2006–2014. Negative development in uptime and regularity dominated the first ... part of the examined period, from 2006 to 2011. It turned positive from 2011, but in 2014 results were still worse than in 2006. The results have lagged behind the Ministry's target figures for most ... of the period.
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Management of Information Resources of the Ministry of Agriculture
The Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Lithuania has managed 32 information systems and registers. Of these, 24 ones are managed, developed and upgraded by a state enterprise subordinate ... to the Ministry of Agriculture, the Agricultural Information and Rural Business Centre. The annual amount allocated by the Ministry for the maintenance of the Centre totals LTL 17.5 million on average ... . The objective of the audit was to assess the general and development controls of the information resources of the Ministry of Agriculture. The audit was conducted at the Ministry of Agriculture and the state ... ... Without appropiate IT management  it is hard to achieve reliable, consistent and secure systems for agriculture ... Since 1996 the Ministry has been using information systems of varying complexity for collecting and processing data, including personal data. The Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Lithuania ... has managed 32 information systems and registers. SAI of Lithuania revealed that systems were not well mantained what affected use of funds devoted to the systemsand also their legality and security.
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