Education and Science, Financial Services, Legislation, Lithuania, Technology

The audit detected cases when the property was managed carelessly and irrationally, transactions of the use of property were conducted in violation of legal acts and management decisions were adopted without maximum benefit to the public. Violations were not identified only in the three out of 13 institutes audited, the Audit Office reports.

The National Audit Office has also pointed to repeated violations in the area of transfer of the state property for the implementation of activity of science and technology parks.

Besides other violations, research institutes reluctantly addressed issues of ineligible (condemned) property; agreement of decisions adopted in relation to that property with the Ministry of Education and Science was too slow and the required funds were not allocated for the liquidation or reconstruction of the property.

Only as a result of the audit observations the institutes took the necessary measures to address the identified shortcomings and violations, to implement the audit recommendations, to develop new or improve the existing control procedures.

The National Audit Office was also interested in how the institutes implemented recommendations of previous audits. In 2006, the management of the National Cancer Institute (former Institute of Oncology of the Vilnius University) was recommended to address the issue of termination of four joint activity agreements on the basis of which permission was given to a joint stock company, association and archdiocese to use premises and buildings free of charge. One of the four agreements was terminated already in 2006, two more were terminated seven years following the recommendation (in 2013). The termination of the fourth agreement concerning the parking place was also delayed. Only in the event of the change of the institute manager the latter applied to the court and in spring of this year the court declared the agreement invalid.

Although the National Cancer Institute has implemented the recommendations provided by the previous audits, the breaches in the area of the management and use of the state property have been committed repeatedly. The auditors have again identified violations in the rental, lease and other property related areas. Moreover, in January 2014, the institute acquired part of goods and services without following the public procurement procedures. Only upon the recommendation of the auditors agreements for procurement of services and goods exceeding the period of three years permitted under the relevant legislation were terminated.