Performance of central government

Audit

Auditreports

• State property: volume and value

  Audit | 15-12-2011

  The Netherlands Court of Audit has investigated whether the government has a comprehensive overview of the volume and value of the property owned by the state of the Netherlands. We also considered whether ministries had sufficient information to consider the disposal of state property on a timely basis.
  
  

• The use of horizontal accounting information

  Audit | 26-05-2011

  

  There are significant differences in the ministries' use of horizontal accounting information in their vertical supervision of legal persons with statutory tasks. This audit provides an insight into whether and how ministries use horizontal accounting information in both their policies and their practice. In the light of our findings, we provide guidance on the use of horizontal accounting information in vertical supervision. The guidance can form a framework for ministers to improve the transparency of their use of horizontal accounting information.
  The use of horizontal accounting information is the third publication in our series of surveys of accountability and supervision at legal persons with statutory tasks and other institutions at arm's length from central government.
  

• Impact assessment: Foreign allowances granted to civil servants in 2002-2008

  Audit | 17-03-2011

  

  This Impact Assessment considers the follow-up to the recommendations we had made in the audit Foreign allowances granted to civil servants in 2002-2008 published 2009. We had carried out the original audit at the request of the House of Representatives. Following concerns about payments made to a civil servant seconded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (BuZa), the House had requested the audit with a view to obtaining a comprehensive picture of the nature, scale and regularity of allowances granted to civil servants seconded to international organisations. Our audit had found that only a small group of civil servants was involved but many things went amiss. Many allowances were granted without consultation with the international organisation concerned. Furthermore, ministries often did not comply with the regulations on the recovery of pension contributions at the end of a secondment. We made a number of recommendations to improve the situation.

• Open standards and open source software in central government

  Audit | 15-03-2011

  

  At the request of the House of Representatives, we have audited the potential savings to be achieved through the wider application of open standards and open source software in central government. We concentrated on the ministries and associated agencies and on existing computer programs for which realistic open alternatives are available in theory. We concluded amongst other things that the potential savings the government could make by making more use of open source software were limited. We also found that an approach to ICT based solely on the wish to cut costs was too restrictive.

• Immigration and Naturalisation Service; Impact Assessment 2010

  Audit | 25-03-2010

  

  In September 2005 we published a report entitled Immigration and Naturalisation Service. At the request of the former Minister for Immigration and Integration, we audited the primary process in place at the Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND) for the standard admission of aliens. The audit concerned the relationship between charges and efficiency at the IND.
  
  The Impact Assessment we published in 2010 presents the situation at the IND in 2009: to what extent has the IND followed up the recommendations we made in 2005 and what has been the impact? We found that the IND had followed up all our recommendations and implemented all the measures set out in the government's response to our audit. The IND's performance has improved but it has not yet achieved all the goals sought from the measures.
  

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