The Commission of Audit (CA) has just released the special audit report “University of Macau staff housing allocation regime — University of Macau’s Zhuhai Research Institute — University of Macau Development Foundation”, which presents the audit results, opinions and suggestions for those 3 specific subjects relating to the operational and management activities of University of Macau (UM). Following the report on “Cost estimation for Macau University’s new campus on Hengqing Island”, released in January 2013, this is the second special audit report on specific issues relating to UM.

The Commission of Audit (CA) has just released its third special audit report on the construction of the light rail transit system — “First Phase of the Light Rail Transit System – 3^rd Report”. The audit conducted by CA focused on how the Transportation Infrastructure Office (GIT) manages the risks, supervises the awarded building contracts and updates the estimates of the total investment of the light rail transit system (LRT). In the report, CA also presented opinions and suggestions according to the audit findings.

The Commissioner of Audit Ho Veng On presented today (24) the “Audit Report on the General Account 2013” to the Legislative Assembly. Introducing the report, Ho Veng On said the Commission of Audit (CA) conducted the audit in accordance with all applicable regulations and rules and carried out all needed procedures in examining the financial statements pertaining to the “Government’s Integrated Ordinary Account” and to the “Special Entities’ Aggregated Account”, which together formed the General Account. The Commissioner of Audit expressed an unqualified opinion on the General Account 2013.

The Commission of Audit (CA) has just released the performance audit report “Using and managing tools for prosecuting traffic violations”. The audit report reveals the management adopted by the Public Security Police Force (PSP) risks losing citations, because its various units, which perform the fining, don’t follow the same procedures in handling those citations. The report also reveals that after more than 10 years of preparation, PSP still has not completed the replacement of handwritten citations by electronic device produced citations, a plan started in 2002 as result of the policy of “strengthen the police performance through technology”. On the other hand, the audit report points out PSP has no unified criteria for examining images captured by the three electronic traffic monitoring systems and doesn’t require the examining police officers to record the reasons for which they decide not to prosecute certain violations viewed in the captured images. CA has examined the images captured by the electronic monitoring systems as well as the prosecution records relating to 2012 and found that there were months in which a high percentage of monitoring devices recorded “no images”, others with less than 20% of their images successfully used in prosecuting the offenders, while some devices even could not capture any images throughout the year. The Transport Bureau (DSAT, according to its Portuguese name initials), which is responsible for the installation and repair of the devices, received monthly “reports” from PSP on problems with the devices, however, after more than a year, no improvements were registered.

The Commissioner of Audit Ho Veng On presented today (30) the “Audit Report on the General Account 2012” to the Legislative Assembly. Introducing the report, Ho Veng On said the Commission of Audit (CA) conducted the audit in accordance with all applicable regulations and rules and carried out all indispensable audit works for the preparation of the “Audit Report on the General Account 2012”, examining the financial statements pertaining to the “Integrated Ordinary Account of the Government” and to the “Aggregated Account of the Special Entities”, which together formed the General Account. The Commissioner of Audit expressed an unqualified opinion on the General Account 2012.

The Commission of Audit (CA) has just released the performance audit report “Expansion Project of Pac On Terminal (Taipa Island) and its Financial Arrangements”. The audit report reveals the expansion proposals submitted for approval between 2006 and 2009 by the Office for Development of Infrastructures (GDI, according to the Office’s Portuguese name initials), the public department charged with the construction, have led to a significant increase of the costs, borne by public money. Despite the continuing increase, GDI never, in the whole process, carried out any in-depth study on the future development of the terminal, namely regarding the evolution of the number of passengers using it, which raises doubt on whether the expanded terminal would be able to meet the real demand, i.e. would the new terminal be undersized or oversized. On the other hand, GDI didn’t estimate the total costs of the project, which not only hindered the financial arrangement and the costs management of the project, but also impeded the Government of Macau to have a complete view on the costs required and, therefore, becoming unable to take the most adequate decisions maximising the economic benefits.

The Commission of Audit (CA) has just released the performance audit report “Public Service of Road Mass Transport”. The report pointed out that the DSAT (initials of the Portuguese name of the Transport Bureau — Direcção dos Serviços para os Assuntos de Tráfego), the public department responsible for implementing and supervising the “new model of the public bus service”, failed in overseeing the operators in various parts of the service, namely in trips monitoring, in the procedures of confirmation and payment for the service effectively rendered, in checking the fares paid by cash and in establishing in the “Tender Document for the Public Service of Road Mass Transport” the appropriate ecological specifications for the buses. All these shortcomings impaired the effective implementation of the “new model of bus service”.

The Commission of Audit (CA) has just released the special audit report “Cost estimation for Macau University’s new campus on Hengqing Island” in which it revealed the initial cost estimate for the Macau University’s new campus on Hengqing Island (hereafter referred to as new campus) presented by the Infrastructure Development Office (named hereafter according to its Portuguese initials - GDI) in April 2010 was 5.800 million patacas, but in November 2011 it climbed to 9.800 million patacas, as a result of new demands introduced into the project, exchange rates and inflation. The revised amount was supposed to be the upper limit of the funds to be invested on the project, but in March 2012 the total amount forecasted was already over 10.200 million patacas, albeit including expenses with consultancy service, laying of infrastructures, works supervision and quality control. The audit found that GDI did not include all the involved works in the cost estimation and failed in the evaluation of costs factors and by the review and updating of the estimate. The audit examined the costs involved in the construction of the new campus with the objective of verifying whether the cost estimation was conducted properly and adequately so it could be used as costs control of the project. The audit report also presented opinions and suggestions according to the audit findings.

Upon the release by the Commission of Audit (CA) of the performance audit report “Continuing Education and Development Plan”, the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau (DSEJ, according to its Portuguese abbreviation), as auditee, rebutted publicly various audit findings presented in the audit report. Inclusively, DSEJ affirmed that CA “misunderstood” the assessment procedure applied in the Continuing Education and Development Plan (hereinafter referred to as Plan). Confronted with such affirmation, CA decides to present, again, the main audit findings disclosed in the audit report in order to better clarify the public.

The Commissioner of Audit Ho Veng On presented today (18) the “Audit Report on the General Account 2011” to the Legislative Assembly. Introducing the report, Ho Veng On said the Commission of Audit (CA) conducted the audit in accordance with all applicable regulations and rules and carried out all indispensible audit works for the preparation of the “Audit Report on the General Account 2011”, which examined the financial statements pertaining to the “Integrated Ordinary Account of the Government” and to the “Aggregated Account of the Special Entities” that together formed the General Account.