14 November 2024, 16:04

Auditor General: Specifics in the case of a diplomat who received a foreign allowance for three months

POLICY #Audit Service #Allowance #Auditor General

The allowance should have been stopped for the diplomat, who received the foreign allowance for 3 months, while he was called to return to Cyprus as an emergency, the Auditor General, Andreas Papakonstantinou, said on Thursday before the Parliamentary Committee for Monitoring Development Plans and Control of Public Expenditures , adding that "even though we understand that the case was not so clear in the sense that he was summoned to Cyprus as an emergency, the diplomat's family was abroad and there were some peculiarities".

Mr. Papakonstantinou presented before the Parliamentary Committee the findings recorded in the Annual Report of the Auditor General for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the year 2022. He indicated that the 2021-2022 financial audit of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was carried out and this Report also includes other matters that were investigated - as they arose after complaints, after they came to the attention of the Audit Service - but also matters that were the subject of a compliance audit.

The Director General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Andreas Kakouris, stated that "as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs we take seriously all the recommendations included in it". He said that in this context some recommendations have already been implemented and others are on the way to implementation. He also said that in some matters the Ministry's position is different from that of the Audit Service.

What the Report records

Mr. Papakonstantinou highlighted before the Committee the most important findings of his Report. Among other things, he said that an issue was identified with regard to the Expatriate Allowance Scheme, which does not contain clear provisions on whether the payment of the General Expatriate Allowance is suspended/terminated for the period when an employee serving outside Cyprus is absent , for some reasons, from his headquarters for a long period of time, residing during this period, either in Cyprus or elsewhere outside his headquarters.

He referred to the case of a diplomat, who received the foreigner's allowance for 3 months, while he had been called to return to Cyprus on an emergency basis, "until the decision is officially issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that he would return to Cyprus".

Mr. Papakonstantinou further explained that "an explanation was given by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that the matter was examined and it was an emergency case, as the family of the diplomat in question was abroad, so there was an inconvenience for the administrator. We detected it and - in our opinion - from the moment he returned to Cyprus the allowance should have been stopped, even though we understand that the case was not so clear in the sense that he was called to Cyprus on an emergency basis, his family was abroad and there were some peculiarities". Mr. Papakonstantinou stated that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs prepared a note where he cited the reasons for the allowance.

The Director of Administration of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Chrysanthos Chrysanthis, said that in relation to the foreign allowance this is paid to the members of the foreign service to cover the difference in the price index between Cyprus and the country in which they are posted. "We agree as a matter of principle with the Auditor General that yes, the cases where someone is out of service for a long time should be looked at with a different lens. But there are particularities in each case," he said

In his intervention, the President of the Committee, Zacharias Koulias, pointed out that a recommendation should be made by the Audit Service to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, so that there is a regulation of the issue in question and the regulations should be followed.

Mr. Papakonstantinou stated that the audit revealed various weaknesses, which weaken the internal control system of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, such as the lack of stamps when receiving and paying invoices/other documents, not performing a monthly reconciliation of funds, not timely recognition of receipts or recognition them without resulting in actual cash flow. The issue of the correctness and regularity of the exchange rate applied by the Ministry was also raised.

On behalf of the accounting department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs it was reported that recommendations have been made regarding incoming and paid invoices and the process is being followed. It was also reported that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is in consultation with the General Accounting Office of the Republic in order to determine the official exchange rate that will be used to convert amounts from foreign currency to euros.

Besides, the Auditor General revealed before the Commission that a rent allowance of 45,000 euros was paid, between the years 2018-2021, to a diplomat while serving abroad, who, during the application for rent allowance he submitted, concealed the fact that he lived in an apartment which is ownership of a company in which he had shares.

Regarding this issue, it was mentioned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that in a future review of the framework for the rent allowance payment procedure, this specific, individual incident will be taken into account. AKEL Member of Parliament, Costas Costas, pointed out that this gap should be filled quickly and any omissions corrected.

Also, Mr. Papakonstantinou said that during the audit of the recruitment process of an official with a work contract to perform duties that are equated with diplomatic duties, at the Embassy of the Republic of Cyprus in Ukraine, it was found that the provisions of the circular of the Department of Public Administration and Personnel were not followed, while weaknesses/shortcomings were also identified in the Call for Expressions of Interest and salary differentiation without informing all interested parties who took part in the process.

Mr. Chrysanthis then stated that "the Auditor General is absolutely right and the suggestions were fully taken into account and since then his instructions have been strictly followed".

The Auditor General also reported that an increased education allowance of 1300 euros was granted to an Ambassador of a Diplomatic Mission for his child's attendance at a private school, since an additional amount over and above the compulsory tuition fees, for attending a non-compulsory course, was taken into account for its calculation. In relation to the educational allowance, Mr. Chrysanthis noted that the responsibility for delivering the course belonged to the private school, which ultimately did not respond.

At the same time, Mr. Papakonstantinou also referred to the issue of the increase in the cost of medical care for government employees who serve in diplomatic missions abroad, saying that there was a significant increase in the US and China. He stated that there were several demands from specific individuals and some workers presented with serious health problems, saying that "we have to be careful and there should be equality". Mr. Chrysanthis stated that "it is a fact that in these two countries we had cases of ministers, who presented serious health problems with cases of cancer. Obviously, the Republic could not abandon them."

In her statement, DISY Member of Parliament, Rita Superman, raised the issue of accompanying the spouses of diplomats (who are either civil servants or belong to the education service) something that, as she said, had arisen in a previous report by the Auditor, and for the if the Ministry intends to legislate the matter in question. Mr. Chrysanthis replied that "we consider that in the specific cases where the spouses have the scientific training - given that they will carry out tasks similar to diplomatic ones - we are also helping the Republic, as our missions abroad are understaffed".

Source: KYPE