The Commissioner of Audit, Choi Mei Lei, pointed out as introducing the Audit Report on the Accounts of the Macao Government of Year 2003 at the Legislative Assembly on November 4th that, certain progresses have been made in improving the financial management system through the concerted efforts by all public departments.

The Commission has officially issued the audit report and provided it to the public for free.

Choi Mei Lei said that, upon the receipt of the general accounts of the Macao government formulated by the Financial Services Bureau, including 27 departments without financial autonomy and of the accounts respectively formulated by 48 other departments with financial autonomy, the Commission comprehensively reviewed and analyzed all accounts and verified whether all accounts had been prepared in conformity with the requirements and accurately reflected the financial income and expenditure. After that, the Commission conducted field audit of 7 departments without autonomy, 6 departments with administrative autonomy and 12 departments with administrative and financial autonomy so as to further examine the actual financial operation of these departments. Since having performed in the past few years the field audit to all public departments with their head offices in Macao, in addition to the field audit of 21 departments, the Commission has dispatched auditors to Beijing and Lisbon respectively to conduct field audit of the representative offices of the Macao SAR.

According to the field audit results this year, it may well be concluded that certain progresses have been made in improving the financial management system through the concerted efforts by all public departments.

The commission attached a “Review on the Financial Operation of Macao Special Administrative Region Government” to the audit report. This report comprehensively reviewed the financial performance of all public departments reflected in the audit reports that have been completed till 2003. In the report, to those public departments having learned and complied with the legal procedures, it only mentions progress in their improvements in the audit report; to those items requiring follow-ups, such as management of the reserved funds and of the “internal control account”, management of overtime expenses, estimated balance within the first budget, and operation of the permanent funds, greater attentions are paid to elaborate the audit opinions in order to help public departments better understand the spirit of relevant regulations and focus of the audit.

Audit Report on the Accounts of the Macao Government of Year 2003 The Commission of Audit has completed Audit Report on the Accounts of the Macao Government of Year 2003 (hereinafter, “Report”), and made special review on the financial operation and management of the Macao Government in the past five years. The Commission submitted the report to the Chief Executive on October 20th as scheduled, which was further submitted to the Legislative Assembly by the Chief Executive.

The Commission audited the general accounts of Macao Special Administrative Region of Year 2003 formulated by the Financial Services Bureau and the accounts respectively formulated by the departments with financial and administrative autonomy and those only with administrative autonomy. The Commissioner of Audit, Choi Mei Lei, pointed out in the report that “the audit results confirm that the abovementioned financial statements appropriately demonstrate the asset and liability conditions ending 31st December 2003 and the annual revenue and expenditure accounts settled on 31st December 2003 in all material respects.”

The Commission also, through issuance of the Review on the Financial Operation of the Macao Special Administrative Region Government, examined the progresses made in audit work in the past five years and followed up the improvements in the deficiencies once found out with public department. The audit results demonstrate that the department has made considerable progresses in the financial operation and management through the concerted efforts by the two sides in the past five years.