The Commission of Audit (CA) conducted a performance audit on outbound official trips made by workers of the public departments and institutions (hereafter abbreviated as departments or public departments) between 1 July 2008 and 30 June 2009, in order to verify whether their management and control are adequate and whether the resources are well applied.
1.1 Audit results and opinions
1.1.1 Expenditure on daily allowance for official trips
1.1.1.1 The public departments prefer the alternative regime to the general regime
The public departments of the sample applied the general regime to around 60% of the trips lasting one day, all of them to Hong Kong or China Mainland, while for over 70% of the trips lasting two or more days they chose the alternative regime. Based on the analysis made by CA, the fact is due to the amounts granted by the general regime are not enough to cover the expenses.
1.1.1.2 There is no permanent procedure to periodically review the daily allowance amounts stipulated in the general regime Hotel lodging consumes the biggest part of the daily allowance. A research conducted by CA shows that in the first semester of 2009 the average price of hotels in Beijing and Shanghai was already around 900 patacas. On the other hand, the highest daily allowance for trips to China Mainland is 1 100 patacas, which is notoriously insufficient to cover the expenses, and it shows that the amounts stipulated in the regulation are out of touch with the reality.
1.1.1.3 Different public departments have different amounts of daily allowances
The examined public departments, because of their own needs, have set internal rules to govern the granting of daily allowances in the general or in the alternative regimes. The rules are of an extreme diversity. For example, the upper limits for daily allowance for lodging and meals are all different; there are even public departments that set no upper limit. The present situation is not coherent and is harmful to the principle of equal treatment for all Public Administration workers.
1.1.1.4 Conflicts between internal rules of the public departments and the provisions in the “Regulations on Workers of Public Administration” (ETAPM, short form in Portuguese)
Some departments, with no power to do so, have established their own internal rules which are aggravated by the fact that they go against the rules stated in ETAPM.
1.1.1.5 Expenses on lodging and meals tend to be relatively high
Lodging and food are the two items which weight the most in the daily allowance and also those containing higher risks. In effect, CA verified that expenses on these two items are relatively high in the accounts of the departments. Examining data provided by the ten departments of the sample, CA verified that over 60% of the more expansive rooms booked by the departments costed more than 2 000 patacas per night, and there was one case of 13 770 patacas per night. On the other hand, the average price of a meal/person varied between 150 patacas and 1 300 patacas.
CA is of the opinion that the present provisions are not specific enough to guide the departments, which gives rise to relatively high expenses on lodging and food.
1.1.2 Other problems with the management of official trips — trip report
According to the written reply given by the Public Administration and Civil Service Bureau, there are no exemptive or exceptional circumstances by which a worker may not present the trip report. This following, any worker, upon the returning from a trip, should present a “circumstantiated” trip report; otherwise any outstanding daily allowance may not be paid. However, CA verified that the examined departments don’t enforced the compliance with the provisions of ETAPM and proceed to payments without any legal basis: some departments allowed the trip report to be handed in after the payment, others permitted the presentation after the period of 30 days upon returning and other simply ignore whether the trip report is presented or not.
1.2 Suggestions of the Commission of Audit
1.2.1 A complete review of the general provisions that regulate the official trips, with special focus on the two regimes of granting daily allowances;
1.2.2 Specific and detailed instructions should established for guiding the public departments in making their internal rules, namely towards an effective control on the expenses on lodging and meals;
1.2.3 A permanent procedure should be established to regularly review the regulations and instructions related to daily allowance in order to assure that they remain always updated and effective;
1.2.4 The public departments should have an overview of the whole Public Administration when establishing their internal rules in order to avoid any inequalities among them or any conflict with ETAPM;
1.2.5 The perception of good application of public money and the compliance with the principle of economy and self-control should be strengthened so that the public money could be spent efficiently;
1.2.6 The public departments should value the trip report and demand its presentation, in strict compliance with the law; they also should regulate the structure of the report in order that it could become a useful written document to assess the official trip and a source of information.
