Commission of Audit of Macao SAR

Audit findings and opinion

In 2007 the Commission of Audit conducted a performance audit on publications launched by the Cultural Institute (named hereafter as IC according to Portuguese abbreviation) and by the Civic and Municipal Affairs Institute (named hereafter as IACM according to Portuguese abbreviation) in order to verify whether the management of the publications could be improved as well as to set up references to other public departments. The publications examined were those considered as high risk, such as books, programmes, posters, congratulations cards, envelopes for lai si^NT1, fai chun^NT2, calendars and table calendars, and the audit found the following:

Overall, IC had no written instructions regulating its editorial activity and, on the other hand, those of IACM should be completed and enhanced in some aspects.

Publications planning by the two departments not thorough enough, resulting in publications too luxurious and excessive number copies:.

a) from the beginning of year 2000 to the end of 2006, IC and IACM, together, held more than 130 thousands copies in stock, which represented over 5 millions patacas of costs, based on documents provided by the two departments;

b) programmes for similar activities and with similar number of copies of either departments had costs variations of around two times when produced by different subunits;

c) excessive number of copies of congratulations cards, envelopes for lai si, fai chun, calendars and other greetings objects as during the period of 2004 to 2006 alone, IC and IACM, respectively, spent over 680 and 620 thousands patacas for these types of works.

The two departments were lax in observing the terms laid in the Decree Law n.o 6/97/M, approved on 24 February 1997, on the need to consult the Government Printing House (named hereafter as IO according to Portuguese abbreviation) for printing works intended by government departments.

Lack of control measures: there were no uniform procedures on stock registry, the management of the publications in stock was not effective, the conditions of the warehouses were deficient and there was no evaluation on the publications launched.

Not enough attention dedicated to the editorial activity.

Suggestions presented by the Commission of Audit

The Commission of Audit suggests that an integrated management of the publications of the government departments should be set up, which oversees from the preliminary planning up to the post-publication evaluation, namely:

The departments should lay down written, clear and binding instructions to regulate the entire publication process;

The specifications and the number of copies should consider the real necessities and the relation of cost-effectiveness, so as to minimize resources wastage;

The departments should promote the usage of electronic greetings cards, and should publicity materials be printed to satisfy festivities demands, priority must be given to economy;

The terms of the Decree Law n.o 6/97/M, approved on 24 February 2009, should be rigorously complied with in respect of including IO for prices quotation;

The departments should assign personnel specifically to receive and to handle offers and to take care of the storage of publications;

The departments should set up mechanism to reduce the accumulation of stock;

Te departments should make periodical evaluation on the publishing activity and to register the conclusions reached.

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In terms of the Decree Law n.º 26/94/M, approved on 16 May 1994, the Culture Fund was established for promoting activities and performances initiated by Cultural Institute itself and acting as a strong financial supporter for cultural activities and projects in the Macao Special Administrative Region. According to IC, the expenses examined in this report were supported by the Culture Fund.

^NT1 Transliteration of lai si, in Cantonese reading, referring to a small red envelope holding variable amount of money given out during the Chinese Spring Festival as a way to wishing good fortune.

^NT2 Transliteration of fai chun, in Cantonese reading, referring to sayings normally composed of four words and written on a strip of red paper wishing good fortune.

«Management of Governmental Departments Publications»