site.btaMinistries' Expenditures, Public Procurement Contracts Pose Risk to Budget - Finance Ministry

Ministries' Expenditures, Public Procurement Contracts Pose Risk to Budget - Finance Ministry


Sofia, September 2 (BTA) - The ministries' expenditures and the
public procurement contracts pose a risk to the budget, Deputy
Finance Minister Temenouzhka Petkova told journalists on
Tuesday.

As at July 31, the ministries' revenues were in accordance with
the targeted ones. Only the Ministry of Agriculture and Food,
the Ministry of Environment and Water, the Ministry of Education
 and Science were lagging behind with 45 per cent, 31 per cent
and 14 per cent fulfillment of the revenue part of their
budgets, respectively.

The budget expenditures are also run in accordance with the
plan. However, there are few exceptions: the Ministry of
Regional Development, which has already fulfilled 78 per cent of
 the expenditure part of its budget, the Council of Ministries
with 72 per cent and the Foreign Ministry with 67 per cent.
These ministries are at risk of violating Article 55 of the 2014
 Budget Act, which envisages that up to 95 per cent of the
budgeted expenditures may be spent, Petkova explained.

The audit of the ministries was carried out in the period from
August 14 to 27. The ministers already have detailed reports
about the revenues and the expenditures of their ministries,
said Petkova.


As at the end of July, the overdue receivables of the Council of
 Ministers and the ministries, including second-level spending
units, stood at 136.44 million leva. The largest portion of
overdue receivables, 25.86 million leva, were posted by the
Agriculture and Food Ministry; the Transport, IT and
Communications Ministry 22.79 million leva; the Interior
Ministry 18.95 million leva; and the Regional Development
Ministry 13.43 million leva. Petkova said that a large amount of
 these receivables were owed under contracts from previous
years.

As at the end of July, the Council of Ministers and the
ministries posted overdue payables of 156 million leva. The
Defence Ministry tops the list with 109.84 million leva,
followed by the Interior Ministry with 30.14 million leva and
the Justice Ministry with 6.25 million leva. The bulk of overdue
 amounts is owed to suppliers.

The payments due by the year's end under contracts signed by the
 Council of Ministers and departments total 1,440 million leva,
and the available financing is 1,176 million leva. The
unavailable financing is 267.33 million leva, where the Defence
Ministry accounts for the largest portion, including 98 million
leva owed by the Military Medical Academy. The amount of
unavailable financing will increase considerably due to the
additional budget restriction which set the ceiling on
expenditures at 90 per cent of the ministries' budgets.

The ministries' planned public procurement orders are worth an
estimated 3,047 million leva. The ministries' reports show that
1,005 million leva of these have not been provided. However,
some of those procurement orders have not been announced and the
 shortfall may prove to be lower in reality. The Finance
Ministry recommends that after analysis, public procurement
orders be reduced as much as possible.

Advance payments under EU-financed projects also pose a risk
because the European Commission may not verify them and the
money spent from the public purse will not be reimbursed.
VI/TK,DD

 



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