The Audit Commission has released the performance audit report on the “Construction of Rainwater Pumping Station and Box-Culvert in Northern Inner Harbour”. According to the statistics, the expenditure on flood prevention and mitigation (including the prevention of flood and the drainage of stormwater) from 2008 to 2020 reached around 1.47 billion patacas. The Audit Commission noted that, in addition to the completed project of rainwater pumping station and box-culvert in the northern area of the Inner Harbour (hereinafter referred to as Inner Harbour North Pumping Station) in mid-2021, the Government of the Macao Special Administrative Region is planning to start a series of flood prevention and mitigation projects, among which the “Inner Harbour South Pumping Station” is progressing on schedule. Therefore, the Audit Commission conducted a review on the construction of the Inner Harbour North Pumping Station, hoping that the audit results could be taken as a reference for public departments that carry out similar projects in the future.

In accordance with article 3 of Law n.o 11/1999, the Audit Commission conducts financial audit on the budget execution of the Government of the Macao Special Administrative Region and prepares the audit report on the General Account. Today, at the plenary meeting of the Legislative Assembly, the Audit Commissioner, Mr. Ho Veng On, presented the main content of the report in detail and the specific situation of the work carried out.

Macau Investment and Development Limited (hereinafter referred to as “MID”) is a public capital enterprise that enjoys advantages in policies, capital and corporate regime. As at 31 December 2020, after six capital injections, the capital of MID was 9.285 billion patacas, and the total amount spent on investment was 8.964 billion patacas, of which 8.074 billion patacas was invested in Industrial Park project in Hengqin and 890 million patacas was invested in Zhongshan project. In the performance audit report “Management of Macao Investment and Development Limited” released in December 2020, the Commission of Audit (CA) disclosed that the Industrial Park project had had noticeable problems in management and decision-making. In order to further investigate the major investments made by the Macao SAR Government in neighboring areas, CA conducted an audit on the Zhongshan project thereafter and then completed the performance audit report “Management of Macao Investment and Development Limited” (II), discovering that Parafuturo de Macau Investment and Development Limited (hereinafter referred to as “Parafuturo de Macau”), which is a subsidiary of MID, failed to carry out the preliminary study properly when it made decision on major investments, ignoring the potential risks.

The Commission of Audit (CA) has released the performance audit report “Management of Macao Investment and Development Limited”, in which it reviewed the documents of Macao Investment and Development Limited (hereinafter referred to as “MID”) from March 2011 to June 2020, and explored whether MID used the public funds reasonably in the process of planning and selecting the development and management model for the Guangdong - Macao Traditional Chinese Medicine Science and Technology Industrial Park.

The Commissioner of Audit Ho Veng On presented the “Audit Report on the General Account 2019” to the Legislative Assembly today, explaining the situation of the work carried out by the Commission of Audit (CA) after the Financial Bureau submitted all the relevant accounts and information at the end of May this year.

The Commission of Audit (CA) has released the performance audit report “Effects of previous audit reports”, which conducted a comprehensive evaluation of all special audit reports and performance audit reports published between 20 December 1999 and 20 March 2017; and ranked the audit findings according to the risk level of high, middle and low. Among the 131 audit findings which were ranked as high and middle risk level, 26 were selected to be followed up, involving nine audit reports. The objective of follow-up work is to explore whether the auditees formulated measures to improve the problems and deficiencies in their work in order to increase the efficiency of their work and ensure the proper use of public funds. Moreover, CA followed up the work of DSAT on reviewing the service fees paid to the bus companies to ensure that it exercised the oversight responsibility, spent the public funds rigorously and protected the legal rights and interests of the Government.

The Commission of Audit (CA) released the audit report “Effects of Previous Audit Reports – Continuing Education and Development Plan” in November 2012, which pointed out four audit findings related to the inspections of courses, including: the failure of the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau (hereinafter referred to as “DSEJ” according to Portuguese abbreviation) to fully implement the inspection mechanism for the institutions participating in the Continuing Education and Development Plan (hereinafter referred to as “the Plan”), making the inspection work could not have the anticipated effect; the ineffective inspection of the guarantee fee system; the lack of mechanism to prevent identity theft in the backup plan for enrolment; the existence of the situation in which trainers enrolled in their own courses. As the Plan has continued to be implemented and widen the scope, it involved a large amount of public funds (a total amount of 1.78 billion patacas as at 31 December 2018), CA carried out the audit to follow up the improvement made for the four audit findings, with the aim of exploring whether DSEJ has improved the inspections of courses to ensure the quality of courses and the prudent use of public funds. The audit result showed that, among the above four problems, three problems had still not been improved. CA specified these problems in the performance audit report of “Effects of Previous Audit Reports – Continuing Education and Development Plan”.

The Commission of Audit (CA) released the audit report of “Subsidies Granted by Macau Foundation to Associations” in June 2012, which provided audit opinions and suggestions on the audit findings related to the approval, disbursement and monitoring of subsidies. In this audit, CA selected audit findings related to the supervision of subsidies to follow up, including “Monitoring the obligation of subsidies recipients to submit activity reports and the imposition of sanctions on violators” and “Follow-up and supervision after granting the subsidies”.

The Commission of Audit (CA) has released the performance audit report “Operation of Macau International Airport Company Limited”, in which it reviewed the management and operation of the Macau International Airport (hereinafter refer to as “MIA”), and explored whether its management model could properly manage the business it operates and whether it has an effective inspection mechanism to ensure the proper use of public resources invested by the Government of the Macao Special Administrative Region (hereinafter refer to as “MSAR”). This audit reviewed the documents from January 2008 to April 2019, focusing on the major projects carried out at MIA in recent years and the operation and management of MIA by Macau International Airport Company Limited (hereinafter refer to as “CAM”).

The Commissioner of Audit Ho Veng On presented the “Audit Report on the General Account 2018” to the Legislative Assembly today, specifying the main content of financial audit and the aspects that deserve special attention.

Ho Veng On stated that according to the audit result, the 2018 General Account of Macao Special Administrative Region (MSAR) has been prepared in accordance with laws, reflecting, in all material aspects, the execution or operation results of SAR Government in 2018 under the respective adoptive systems, and the financial position as at 31 December 2018. Therefore, the Commissioner of Audit expressed an unqualified opinion on the 2018 General Account of MSAR.