With the commitment to immediately fill the 29 permanent vacancies at RIK and the creation of 20 additional promotion posts (A11(ii) and A12(ii)) (a total of 49 promotion posts), it is obvious that very soon, dozens of permanent Associates (AOs) serving in the post of Assistant Officer in the A4-7(ii) scale will have been upgraded to the A8-10-11 or A9-11-12 scale and many of them to the A11(ii) and A12(ii) scale and this is obviously a scandalous case of waste of public money, says Auditor General Odysseas Michaelides, in the Special Report on RIK which was posted on Monday on the agency's website.
SEE ANALYSIS OF THE REPORT HERE
According to the approved budget of the RIC for the year 2021, as stated in the Report, the organic posts of the Foundation increased from 181 in 2020 to 266 and most of the posts were upgraded.
At a time when the Foundation employs 58 journalists/editors who are either permanent employees or employees of indefinite duration, new collaborators are constantly being recruited to journalist/editor positions, and this is done through non-transparent and unacceptable procedures. We record the case of two such recruitments, the Auditor General says.
Key findings in the Report include the failure to maintain Service Records for Permanent and Fixed-term Associates, the granting of a request by permanent employees for their service during the period they served as Permanent Associates to be recognised as pensionable, with a consequent increase in their pension benefits.
Reference is also made to a delay in the submission of financial statements for the year, a working capital deficit of €7.43 million and a working capital deficit of €7.43 million. and total liabilities exceeding total assets by €131.65 million.These figures, it is noted, demonstrate that the Foundation's ability to continue as a going concern relies on the continued provision of state sponsorship.
EY also refers to a rapid annihilation of the value of the Pension Fund and the creation of an actuarial deficit as at 31.12.2019 of €125.6 million in the absence of action, based on the recommendations of the study carried out for the Strategic and Operational Planning for RIC. On the contrary, it is noted, the Foundation is taking actions in the exact opposite direction, such as signing agreements with the Trade Unions of RIC employees to upgrade the grades of permanent employees holding university qualifications related to the duties of their post from the A4-7(ii) scale to the A8-10-11 or A9-11-12 scale, the inclusion of all permanent staff with a university degree and/or professional title in step A8-10-11 or A9-11-12 against vacant permanent posts or as supernumeraries and the upgrading of permanent staff holding a diploma of at least three years' post-secondary education to step A5+2, step 7-8(i).
The Controller states that in the event that such persons become CRAs, they will be given the same treatment in the new organizational chart as existing CRAs, as provided for in the agreement of 27.10.2020.
It also refers to creation of new posts and a commitment to seek an exemption from the prohibition on filling vacant promotion posts.
The report refers to outstanding issues, most of which have been highlighted for a number of years but are still outstanding. These include the confirmation of academic qualifications of staff and according to the report we noted that 11 staff members did not produce the academic qualifications required by the Service Plans, four of whom sent personal letters to the Board explaining the reasons why they could not produce the necessary documents.
It is noted that of the seven persons mentioned above, two have left the Foundation.
On 31.1.2018, the five persons who had not responded (one person provided a copy of their academic qualifications in 2018) were sent relevant letters to provide copies of their academic qualifications to update their personal files, noting that by not providing them they would be deemed not to possess the said academic qualifications, the Report states.
In the Foundation's Compliance Report, dated 31.1.2018. 25.2.2019, states that the Board considers the matter closed because the said academic qualifications were not required when the said persons were converted to Permanent Associates, a position with which our Office disagrees.
In the 2019 RIC Budget there are 8 approved Director positions at Salary Scale A15+2, of which 3 positions were vacant. During the year, one Director was absent on leave without pay and his position was filled by a Senior Staff member of the Institution. 2 of the 3 vacant Director posts were filled by RIC staff.
We noted that the Service Plans for only 2 of the 8 Director posts provide for an A15+2 scale, while for the remaining posts, the Service Plans provide for an A14 scale. It may be pointed out that under the Regulations of the Foundation issued under Section 12 of the Radio Broadcasting Foundation Act and published in the Official Gazette on 7.4.1966 as Administrative Acts and Notifications No. 166, "The salary of every post in the service of the Foundation shall be that fixed in a service plan issued by the Foundation under Section 10 of the Act", says the EO.
The EY in a recommendation calls on the Foundation to amend the Directors' Service Plans as soon as possible and to modernise the 1966 Regulations so that the Service Plans are approved by the Council of Ministers, a practice that applies to other legal entities under public law.
With regard to staff benefits, it is stated that the issue has been raised by the Service since 1997 and although on 15.12.2015, an officer was appointed to look into the matter, the regulation of the Regulations relating to staff benefits, which include, inter alia, the transfer of holidays and the health care plan, is still pending.
Regarding lawsuits against Advertising Agencies for non-payment of their debts, as has been reported in previous Reports, there is a risk of loss of significant amounts owed by some advertising agencies.
The general conclusions of the Report state that although the Foundation continues to depend, to a large extent, on government sponsorship and although staff costs form a large part of its budget and studies indicate the need to reduce them, not only is the Foundation not taking steps to address the problem, but instead it is acting in a way that continually exacerbates the problem
