Supreme Audit Office of the Slovak Republic

The Centre for Labour, Social Affairs and Family (CLSAF) uses ten percent of more than 1.5 billion budget for the extensive social agenda for its day-to-day operations. In its audit of the management of these funds, the SAO SR found less serious shortcomings concerned, for example, lack of updating of public procurement processes. In the area of public procurement, the CLSAF also failed to fulfil the obligation related to the conclusion of an agreement on joining the central public procurement system with the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family of the Slovak Republic as the central contracting authority.

Significant shortcomings were related to breaches of financial discipline, namely in the supply of services and in remuneration for work performed outside the employment relationship. Although the identified deficiencies were not of a fundamental or systemic nature, the SAO SR proposed to the audited entity to take appropriate measures to prevent their recurrence in the future.

The SAO SR identified the activities of the CLSAF internal control department as insufficient. In the course of three years, it performed only four controls directly at the headquarters, focusing on the management of public funds and State property. The SAO SR considers as non-standard that the same department manages the agenda of complaints, petitions and submissions as well as administrative proceedings. Therefore, it recommends separating the agenda of administrative proceedings from the activities of the controlling department into a separate organizational unit, which would ensure not only greater impartiality, but also transparency in the entire process.

The largest part of the CLSAF current expenditures (up to 80%) is represented by expenditures on wages and levies, including insurance premiums. Despite the fact that most of the employees have a university degree, their average monthly salary is only about 800 euros. The SAO SR draws attention to the discrepancy between the demands for a highly qualified workforce and the low wage evaluation of employees who ensure the implementation of one of the key agendas in the State public policies. The SAO SR evaluates this as a non-negligible risk factor that threatens the professionalism, quality, but also the personnel stability of one of the important State institutions.

The full text of the press release about this audit in Slovak language is available here. Use the Google icon in the top bar for automatic translation into the desired language.