2017-02-14
Auditors notice a lack of rational approach to the management of staff at public establishments
Public expectations for better performance of public establishments are high, however, the appealingness of the public service reduces among high-skilled employees, and the possibilities to attract them with a higher salary are limited. An audit performed by the supreme audit institution at three ministries shows that the staff management system of the public sector does not ensure the achievement of the objectives of an establishment in the most efficient manner.
The audit performed at the Ministries of Health, Agriculture and Social Security and Labour revealed that the issue on how many and what functions the State must undertake is not being systematically identified, therefore it is not clear what number of employees institutions must have for this purpose. In light of the current situation, some establishments lack staff to perform the assigned functions, i. e. to serve the population, while the others may have too many employees.
The audit revealed that there is a number of cases where the servicing of an institution's activity is entrusted to the public servants having too high qualifications for the performed tasks and receiving a higher wage, and vice versa: in some cases, the main activity of the establishment (public administration) is carried out by employees employed under employment contracts, who are set with too low requirements. In the assessed areas, the servicing activity of an establishment, which does not require a special status of its public servants, inasmuch as in 56 per cent of cases is performed by public servants whose wages are 35 per cent higher, although these activities may be carried out by the staff employed under employment contracts.
“Such a system when the performance of ordinary functions causes higher costs to the State and important decisions are made by the staff with lower skills and responsibilities signals of the irrational use of the funds allocated for wages, and reduces the transparency and quality of the entire public sector,” said the Director of the Audit Department 1 Laimonas Čiakas.
Taking into consideration the systemic nature of the problems, the National Audit Office has provided recommendations on the improvement of the human resources (personnel) system to the Government. According to the auditors, it is necessary to fully assess the possibilities of improvement of the public management and make decisions that would allow to increase institutional transparency and efficiency. Institutions are called to adopt decisions on personnel management development without waiting for systemic changes. Last year, while approving the strategy for 2016-2020, the SAI launched a review of its own personnel structure and functions, which is scheduled for completion by the end of the current year.
The public auditors will continue to monitor and evaluate the process of the public management improvement. This process is analysed in detail in a large-scale systematic audit “Improvement of public management”, which the supreme audit institution schedules to complete this year.