2013-08-01
Lack of information on Lithuania‘s membership in international organisations
Various state institutions represent Lithuania in international organisations however information provided for the public does not include a full list of International organisations and Lithuania‘s involvement in their activities.
In order to evaluate management of Lithuania’s representation in international organisations at the state level the National Audit Office conducted audit in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs which is responsible for the formulation of the state policy and oversight of its implementation in the areas of representation of Lithuania abroad, its relations under international agreements and other areas of foreign policy.
Data were collected in the Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Economy and Ministry of Communications - the three ministries that represent Lithuania in a majority of international organisations and pay the largest part of its membership contributions.
“The audit detected that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs does not have accurate and comprehensive information on what international organisations Lithuania belongs, on the relevance of the membership and the situation in the implementation of Lithuania’s financial obligations to international organisations”, said the Auditor General Ms. Giedrė Švedienė when commenting the audit results.
The audit also revealed that coordination of Lithuania’s representation in international organisations at state level was hampered by inappropriate prioritisation of participation in committees of international organisations. Moreover, state institutions did not agree their non-participation in high priority events organised by committees of international organisations either with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or the Office of the Prime Minister and did not inform them about their decisions. In 2010-2012 representatives of the Ministry of Communication and its subordinate institutions did not participate in almost half of events (55 out of 121) that were identified as high priority ones by the Prime Minister.
Auditors draw attention to the fact that decisions concerning Lithuania’s membership in international organisations should be based on information regarding the relevance of belonging to those organisations and efficiency of the use of benefits obtained from the membership. There is a lack of regulation on who, how and how often should evaluate relevance of membership in international organisations at state level whereas annual activity reports of state institutions do not contain comprehensive information on the results of representation of Lithuania in international organisations.
In 2012 Lithuania‘s membership contributions to international organisations (except European Union) amounted in total to LTL47.4 million (out of which LTL1 million was paid in advance although there were no such conditions in international agreements) and LTL5.9 million voluntary contributions.
In the end of 2012 Lithuania owed LTL6.8 million membership contributions to international organizations. In 2006 payment of membership contributions was decentralised therefore there is no guarantee that obligations to the major international organisations will be met and budget allocations targeted to membership and voluntary contributions will be used efficiently.
Having conducted the audit the National Audit Office provided recommendations to the Government that would assist in achieving higher accuracy of information managed at state level required to make informed decisions concerning Lithuania’s membership in international organisations, better coordination of participation of Lithuanian representatives in their activity and better meeting obligations to international organisations.