Implementation of the National Audit Office recommendations: employment of people with disabilities improves, developments still awaited in the review of municipal functions

• The implementation of the National Audit Office recommendations has led to an improvement in the employment rate of people with disabilities.
• We are still awaiting developments in the review of municipal functions.
• There is no agreement on how to identify and periodically assess high and very high risk potential hazards at national level.

The National Audit Office's report on the implementation of the recommendations shows that the implementation of the recommendations of the public audits has resulted in improved employment rates of persons with disabilities. Significant changes are still awaited in the review of municipal functions in order to ensure that they are properly performed and that the funding system is efficient and effective.
  
"Access to services for people with disabilities is improved through personalised delivery. Active labour market measures such as job placement assistance, subsidies for workplace adaptations, etc. also contribute to employment. Following the implementation of our recommendations, the share of persons with disabilities employed during the year increased from 24% to 33.4%, compared to the number of persons with disabilities registered in the same year," says Mindaugas Macijauskas, Auditor General.

The implementation of the recommendations made by the National Audit Office has led to greater transparency in public finances. Provisions of the Law on the Structure of the Budgets of State Social Funds came into force in 2023, allowing for more objective analysis of social insurance data on pensions, sickness, maternity, unemployment, accidents at work and occupational diseases. These changes bring more clarity to the preparation and reporting processes of the State Social Funds budgets.

The implementation of the recommendations of the National Audit Office has led to an improvement in the performance of state-owned enterprises: 75% of these enterprises have been set financial expectations to achieve financial rationality and improve performance. The availability and quick operation of the State information resources managed by the State Enterprise Centre of Registers has improved, with a 39.1% increase in the number of IT queries processed in a timely manner and a 36% increase in the number of IT incidents resolved in a timely manner.

Due to delayed implementation of the recommendations, as of 2022, there are still outstanding projects to ensure that social assistance is integrated and accessible to all those who need it. National risk management also needs to be stepped up: a description of the national procedure for the assessment of potential hazards and emergency risks, which would allow for the identification and periodic assessment of high risk and very high risk potential hazards at the national level, has not been approved in 2023. We also see a risk that changes in the modernisation of the information system of the General Emergency Centre to improve the ability of fire rescue forces to transmit information about the need for assistance in a timely manner will not be achieved.

There are 4 draft laws registered in the Seimas that are relevant for the implementation of the recommendations of the public audits, which, once adopted, will bring about the changes sought by the implementation of the recommendations by optimising the Compulsory Health Insurance Fund and improving access to paid personal health care services, as well as by creating legal preconditions for a more efficient quality of the mandatory asset or business valuation reports.

Information on the implementation of all audit recommendations is open to the public on the National Audit Office's website and available here.