2012-02-20
National Audit Office of Lithuania: Huge Investments Into Emergency Call Number While Its Benefit Is Inadequate
Having conducted a performance audit of the Emergency Response Centre (ERC), the National Audit Office of Lithuania identified that the development of the service infrastructure of emergency call number 112 is protracted while funds allocated to that end are not always used in an efficient way. The main reason behind the protracted development of the infrastructure is a lack of planning and coordination of interinstitutional activities.
“Having assessed the process of development of the Emergency Response Centre in 2002, we named shortages in planning; however, the planning and development remained inconsistent“, said the Auditor General Giedrė Švedienė.
Although the development of the service infrastructure of emergency call number 112 has already received over LTL 76 million, optimization of functions related to the answering to emergency calls and dealing with emergency requests has not been finished yet. Currently answering to emergency calls and dealing with emergency requests is performed not only by the specially established ERC, but also by dispatchers of police, fire and rescue, and emergency ambulance services in Lithuania. For example, in cases when there is a request for emergency help, the ERC is only a mediator: it connects a caller to a dispatcher of the Ambulance Service. Therefore medical help may be provided too late.
Giedrė Švedienė emphasized that such a situation is the result of the absence of coordination of activities of all the institutions participating in this process. The further planned reform of ambulance services is not linked to the implementation of the Law on Emergency Response Centre.
In the development of the infrastructure necessary to ERC activities, the use of the budget funds was not always efficient. The NAOL identified weaknesses of the organization of ERC activities and provision of services, which might be eliminated by introducing an effective control system.
In order to ensure a rapid response to emergency requests, the NAOL recommended the Government to take decisions ensuring the transfer of all the functions related to answering the emergency calls by all the emergency services and the management of emergency ambulance and fire and rescue service units to the Emergency Response Centre. It was also recommended to coordinate decisions on the reform of emergency ambulance services with the development of infrastructure of emergency call number 112.
The Ministry of the Interior has to take concrete measures ensuring the completion of the development of infrastructure of emergency call number 112 and optimization of activities of emergency services.
Public audit summary:
Activity of the Emergency Response Centre 