The Parliamentary Committee for the Monitoring of Public Expenditure Development and Control Plans met yesterday, Thursday, April 7, 2022, in the presence of the Minister of Justice and Public Order, the Auditor General, the Director General of the Ministry of Justice and Public Order, the Chief of Police, the Deputy Superintendent of the State Archives, as well as representatives of the Cyprus Fire Service and the Department of Prisons, for the ex officio examination of the Annual Report of the Auditor General for the year 2020 [AUDIT OF THE MINISTRY OF JUSTICE AND PUBLIC ORDER - SPECIAL REPORT 17.3.2022 (YΔΔT/01/2022)] (File No. 23.04.039.002- 2022, 05.14.007.001), in the context of which the views of all stakeholders were submitted. The Auditor General informed the Committee on the purpose and findings of the financial audit conducted by his office on the financial statements of the Republic of Cyprus, in the context of which a sample of receipts and payments transactions of the Ministry of Justice and Public Order in the Administration/Departments/Agencies under the Ministry's responsibility for the years 2019 and 2020 were audited. He also reported on the findings of the compliance audit for the years under review.
In addition, the Auditor General referred, inter alia, to the failure to promote actions to renegotiate rents and ensure that all buildings rented by the Police have a certificate of final approval, in cases of unsuitability of Police storage premises, such as for example the Anti-Drugs Service of the Nicosia Clinic, the delay in resolving the housing problems of the State Archives, as well as the delay in issuing tenders both for the construction and supply of three high-speed patrol boats and for the provision of services for the modification/extension and connection of the Central System of the Police with the National Entry/Exit Control System of the Republic. With regard to the Prisons Department, he noted the need to fulfil the contractor's contractual obligations in relation to the integrated operation of the automatic fire-fighting system and further noted the high number of sick leaves for prison guards compared to the rest of the public service. With regard to the Fire Department, he cited the 37% increase in hours on staff overtime cards between 2019 and 2020.
The Minister of Justice and Public Order assured that all the above
reported issues/problems recorded in the report under consideration are being managed by the relevant departments/agencies of the Ministry to be addressed, and informed the Committee that an official of the Ministry's internal audit unit is being trained to strengthen the effectiveness of the audit and prevent future problems from accumulating and/or delaying their resolution.
The Chief of Police briefed the committee on the force's planning to resolve its housing problems. He further noted that the overtime of members of the Police Force was primarily due to the freezing of posts during 2012-2017, which contributed to the understaffing of the Force, and that at this stage a process was underway to fill vacancies.
Representatives of the Fire Department and the Department of Corrections, as well as the Deputy Superintendent of State Archives, commented on the individual findings of the report and responded to relevant questions raised by Committee members.
The Committee decided to come back at a later stage to discuss the specific issue of meeting the housing needs of the Police and the State Archives.
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Secretariat of the Parliamentary Committee to Monitor Public Expenditure Development and Control Plans
Email: parliamentary-committees@parliament.cy
(IK)
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