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Violations at Bahrain govt bodies: NAO report


The recently released National Audit Office (NAO) report for the year 2014-2015 revealed violations that are detected in several government authorities, including wasting big amounts out of public funds.

The report was delivered to His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa on Monday, Prime Minister HRH Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa on the next day and to the Council of Representatives yesterday. 

It contained several financial, health and organisational violations detected at ministries and government authorities and entities.

Violations included that kitchens and restaurants serving food at private hospitals are not licenced or qualified, risking the public’s health. The report mentioned that inspection visits of Health Ministry weren’t efficient, as samples weren’t examined properly.

It was also revealed that debts worth BD33.6 million owed by Finance Ministry to Shura Council and Parliament Fund were not paid, despite several notices issued in this regard since 2009.

Another revelation was the increase of arrears owed by the Primary Healthcare Directorate to Health Ministry from BD6.5m in 2010 to BD17m by March 2015, with an increase of 161 per cent.

NAO said the data analysis system used at the directorate is outdated and allows certain ranks of employees to manipulate accounts.

It has been revealed that 82875 amendments were made to 9932 bills in the period between January 2012 and May 2015, deducting a total of BD1.68m of the billed amounts, in addition to the disappearance of 4130 bills, which could not be retrieved due to the old system used.

Many other financial and organisational violations were mentioned in the report such as exceeding the budgets of some ministries by millions of dinars and hiring unqualified staff at some government authorities.