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Audit report for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Allowances and rents for private residence

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Εκθεση τησ Ελ&epsilon ;γτιγιαΥπιδμτακαι εοκια ιιτκατοκα /></p> <p>The Audit Service announces that the Special Report on “Ministry of Foreign Affairs Audit”, prepared by the Audit Service, has been posted today on the website of the Service.</p> <p><strong>See the full report HERE.</strong></p> <p>From the audit, various weaknesses were found which weaken the internal control system of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (e.g. lack of stamps when receiving and paying invoices/other documents, not performing a monthly reconciliation of funds, not recognizing collections in time or recognizing them without actual cash flow, etc.).</p> <p><strong>The main audit findings below</strong></p> <ul> <li>The Expatriate Allowance Scheme does not contain clear provisions as to whether the payment of the General Expatriate Allowance (GEE) is suspended/terminated for the period when an employee serving outside Cyprus is absent, for some reason, from their headquarters for a long period of time , residing during this period, either in Cyprus, or elsewhere outside of his seat.</li> <li>A diplomat continued to receive the GEE for a period of three months while serving in Cyprus. It appears that the appropriate procedures were not followed in accordance with the current Expatriate Allowance Scheme and the allowance was granted in violation of the relevant Regulations which provide that the GEE is terminated upon the Diplomat's transfer to Cyprus.</li> <li><strong>Increased education was granted. allowance to an Ambassador of a Diplomatic Mission (DA) for his child's attendance at a private school since an additional amount over and above the compulsory tuition fees was taken into account for the calculation,</strong> for attending a non-compulsory course.</li> <li><strong>During the audit of the process of hiring an official with a work contract to perform tasks that are similar to diplomatic ones, at the Embassy of the Republic of Moldova in Ukraine-Kiev, it was found that the provisions of the circular of the Department of Public Administration and Personnel (TDD&P) no. . 1571, date 20.3.2018. In</strong>we found weaknesses/deficiencies in the Call for Expression of Interest (CIO) and salary differentiation without informing all stakeholders who took part in the process. Additionally, by the way, we found the non-withholding of income tax.</li> </ul> <p>•<strong>Illegal payment of an allowance by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, rent amounting to €45,000, between the years 2018-2021, to a Diplomat when he was serving in a DA abroad, who, in the application for rent allowance he submitted, hid the fact that he lived in an apartment owned by a company that is 70/75 owned by him and 5/75 by his partner</strong>. The Ministry refused to take steps to recover the amount. He also refused to even investigate the possibility of disciplinary offences.</p> <ul> <li>The transfer of an accountant from Cyprus to London and assigning him duties for 80% of his working time in the accounting office of the High Commission in London (HCL) and for 20% in the accounting office of the Permanent Representation of the Republic of Cyprus to the European Union (MAEE), does not seem to it was intended to cover the accounting gap created in the said DAs, but to facilitate the said accountant and therefore also to serve the individual interest. The transfer was accompanied by very attractive benefits, resulting in a waste of public money. In addition, no evaluation was carried out as to whether this was the most economical and effective solution for the orderly operation of public services and, by extension, the well-intentioned public interest.</li> <li>The Council of Ministers (SC) has approved the secondment of an educational officer to a CD Embassy in Europe, where her husband serves as a diplomat, to undertake duties similar to diplomatic ones, even though this is outside of its responsibilities for the placement of the said educational officer in an embassy of the KD abroad, and the official in question could not legally be seconded outside the educational service as diplomatic staff since this is expressly prohibited by the legislation governing the educational service. In fact, the officer in question, while the illegal secondment was made for her own convenience, was granted all the attractive foreign allowances given to diplomats. We therefore consider the whole arrangement, with what it implies in foreign salaries and allowances, a provocative waste of public money, and since it is also illegal, it constitutes an abuse of power. Contrary to this arrangement, we identified another case in which the Supreme Court approved the placement of a National Guard officer in an Embassy of the Republic of Cyprus in Europe, where her husband serves as Defense Attaché of the Republic of Cyprus, for the performance of special duties, but after the waiver was preceded, from the same, the right to claim the payment of any foreign allowance.</li> <li>In relation to the medical treatment of government employees serving in a medical institution abroad, the following was observed:</li> </ul> <p>➢ the Ministry of Foreign Affairs proceeded to set up a three-member committee, i.e. a Committee of Experts, for the purpose of examining the requests of the above personnel for medical care, without, however, identifying any legislative provisions for the establishment, operation and terms of service of the members of the said Committee or actual expenditure of fund 0402210384 “Care of Government Servants abroad” for the year 2022 (€965,798) increased by more than 90% compared to the two previous years and this is due to (a) the large increase in insurance fees observed, in the context of the conclusion new medical coverage (health insurance) with an insurance company, as required based on local data, for the year 2021/2022, jointly with two DAs in the United States of America (US) and (b) the high cost of care for staff at DAs of Asia (75% of the total amount of €161,610 for all staff) who was facing a serious medical problem on a long-term basis for which the agreed procedures for his limitation do not seem to have been followed, i.e. his transfer to Cyprus.</p> <p> < p>○ The Director General (DG) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs requested that an investigation be carried out into the possibility of concluding a global group insurance coverage for the purposes of reducing the above costs, but the study has not yet been completed, nor has the recommendation been implemented, by the insurance representatives of the two DA in the US, to separate the insurance coverage of people with high claims in order to reduce the total expenditure of all personnel.</p> <p>➢ The Foreign Affairs DG has approved the conclusion of private health insurance for DA officers serving on transfer/secondment to the YAL and their family members, for a period of one year and at a total cost of GBP 92,059, although even after his exit of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) there is no question of not being able to use the UK's public health system, due to significant problems, cited by YAL, in the current public health system. The relevant amendment to the procedure which defines the coverage by the state of the costs of providing medical care to officials serving abroad and their dependents was made after the fact and deliberately to cover the above actions and decisions taken. The contract concluded for the provision of private health insurance for the beneficiaries of the YAL also includes dental and ophthalmological services, which are not covered by the National Health Service of Cyprus</p> <p> ➢ Paragraph 11 of the circular of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs no. GD/15/2017, dated 24.4.2017, which provides for the exceptional use of private medical care by beneficiaries located in EU Member States, the EEA and Switzerland, needs to be reviewed for the purposes of equal treatment of beneficiaries in Cyprus and in DAs abroad, taking into account that with the application of the National Health Service of Cyprus, the medical services provided by it to its beneficiaries have been differentiated, in relation to those previously foreseen.</p> <p><noindex></p> <div class=Source: 24h.com.cy

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