One of Lithuania's foreign policy areas under the responsibility of the Ministry is the assistance for developing countries. In 2014, the State allocated over LTL 105 million (EUR 30.4million) for this purpose. The MFA had at its disposal just over one tenth of the above amount. The remaining part of these target funds was distributed among other institutions. Whether the use of these funds met the priorities and objectives set by the State is not known since implementing the Law on Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid, the MFA only conducts the role of statistician, but does not perform an evaluation.
Similar situation occurs when delivering humanitarian aid. In 2014, the State used more than LTL 1.2 million (EUR 0.34 million) for this purpose via various institutions (only some half of them via the Ministry). Therefore in this field it is also not controlled whether the use of funds by other institutions is appropriate. Furthermore, there is a provision of law under which the implementation of priorities in provision of humanitarian aid falls under the responsibility of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, however, Lithuania has not yet defined them, the Audit Office says.
"We recommended to the Ministry to take measures showing the ownership of the State when using the budget funds. We expect the Ministry's determination to change and its initiative to improve the legal framework so that the institution could properly implement the assigned functions," said Auditor General Arunas Dulkys.
For the second year in a row auditors point out errors in the use of State funds to the Ministry. The MFA acquires services in violation of the requirements of the Law on Public Procurement. In 2014, it procured services related to business trips without public procurements procedures; the control over the implementation of concluded contracts was not proper, the value of the procured services exceeded the plan by almost LTL 16.5 million (EUR 4.7 million). In 2013, The Ministry acquired goods and services the total value of which exceeded LTL 6 million (EUR 1.7 million) not following the requirements of the Law on Public Procurement. The auditors follow a strict provision: laws must be complied with, and where they do not meet the needs of the community, inappropriate provisions should be improved.
"Universal compliance with laws is public good and an asset of the State, while a breach of publicly agreed rules and procedures is a public evil; therefore our people reasonably expect principled actions and demand from officers a real accountability for their actions. Unfortunately, the abundance of errors shows an insufficient work culture of civil service, as well as inappropriate qualifications of persons conducting procurements. We believe that our audit results will encourage essential changes and will be a significant assistance to heads of the institution when taking decisions on enhancing the staff competencies and on management of the MFA based on responsibility principle," said the auditor general.
