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Audit at Stradins Hospital in Riga ascertains shortcomings in procedures for calculating salaries

BC, Riga, 11.03.2015.Print version
An audit at the Riga Pauls Stradins Clinical University Hospital's Financial Department has found a number of shortcomings in the way hospital employees' salaries are calculated, according to auditors' conclusions, reports LETA.

The audit was performed by two tax consultants from the company CBB konsultaciju birojs. They were examining the Financial Department's operations from January 1, 2014 to August 1 last year. The audit started on February 16 this year and closed on March 9.

 

The audit has established that there is no uniform system for calculating wages in the hospital, where salaries are calculated differently in every individual hospital's department. Bonuses are not transparent, and it is unclear whether they are even economically justified.

 

"According to our data, at most departments of the hospital bonuses and salaries are calculated irrespective of the hospital's rules on the procedure how salaries are to be calculated," says the audit report.

 

For instance, one regulation in the hospital is that the total amount of bonuses must not exceed 50% of the recipient's principal salary, but there are departments where the amount of bonuses makes up 200% and even 500% of the person's basic salary, says the report.

 

"When we tried to understand how the bonuses were arrived at and talked to the hospital's employees, we discovered that there were about 32 different types of bonuses. The hospital's financial director told us that the hospital had set up a task force to reform the system of wages. When we inquired about the vision or objectives of the task force, there were no answers," the auditors explain.

 

According to the auditors, the hospital must promptly revise all salaries and realize how salaries are calculated in every department. The same goes to salaries paid to hospital administration members.

 

The audit also concluded that the hospital has no overall accounting policy that would be the basis for the management and accounting procedures at the hospital. The chief accountant did say that work on the policy was under way, but she also made it clear she had neither time nor human resources to draft such a policy that would ensure sound organization of the hospital's operations.

 

One of the recommendations by the tax consultants is to revise the functions of the Financial Department. The current financial director does a good job of introducing new systems at the hospital, but there is no control whatsoever in terms of financial accounting. Finally, the auditors indicate that there is no internal reporting procedure at the Financial Department. 






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