Accounting for Central Government 2009

Fewer explanations of policy information
For the eight ministries that are not taking part in the 'Improving Accountability and Budgeting' experiment, we investigated the availability of information to account for the impact of policy. There has been little if any improvement in the availability of policy information in the ministries' annual reports in recent years. Little progress has been made formulating goals and performance in more concrete terms. In an increasing number of cases, an explanation is provided of why there is no information on impacts and performance. Two years ago, such information was provided on just over 25% of the goals; in 2009 the percentage had risen to 41%. Very little information is provided on whether the ministers did what they had intended to do with regard to €37 billion of expenditure. Of the total of €44.3 billion accounted for in their annual reports, they provide little information on whether or not they achieved what they had wanted to achieve with the money.

Annual reports 2009 in order with a few exceptions
We found that the information provided on 13 of the 18 impact and performance indicators audited had been prepared in a sound manner and complied with reporting regulations. The exceptions related to a number of performance indicators in the Minister of Defence's annual report and one performance indicator in the Minister of Justice's annual report. We also noted a number of areas where the preparation of the information on policy conducted could be improved.

Operational management: differences among ministries
For central government as a whole, we found a total of 68 shortcomings in operational management. The total number of management domains that we recognise in our operational management quality card is 1,471. This means that we found shortcomings in fewer than 5% of the management domains. We can cautiously conclude that operational management in central government is reasonably in order, although there are still significant differences in the relative number of shortcomings in operational management at the ministries. There is still ample opportunity and a need for improvement. We found a serious shortcoming in procurement management at the Ministry of Justice. Furthermore, the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Justice, Finance (Tax and Customs Administration), Defence, and Health, Welfare and Sport performed below the government-wide average. At these ministries, we found shortcomings in more than 5% of their operational management processes.

Central Government Accounts in order bar a few stubborn problems
As in the years before the credit crisis, the regularity of obligations, revenues and expenditures was high in 2009. The total number of errors and uncertainties in the expenditure for 2009 amounted to €777.1 million, which is no more than 0.31% of the total expenditure of €246.7 billion. At two ministries (Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment, and Health, Welfare and Sport), however, the irregularities were so high that they exceeded the tolerable threshold for the annual report as a whole. We have not lodged an objection but will continue to monitor the reduction in these errors in 2010.

The picture we outline largely agrees with the picture outlined by the minister in the Central Government Annual Financial Report for 2009. On the basis of the operational management quality card, the Court of Audit concludes that more than 95% of the operational management processes we consider important for the performance of central government did not contain shortcomings. The minister is aware of the problems we found and recognises that there is still room for improvement.