84% recommendations implemented, says NAO

TDT | Manama  

The Daily Tribune –www.newsofbahrain.com

Around 84% of the recommendations the National Audit Office made previously were either implemented or attempted for implementation by agencies, said the latest NAO report.

This rate is a 4% increase, compared to the implementation rate of the 2019-2020 period. It is also an 18% jump from the 2018-2019 period. This improvement, according to NAO, reflects the interest of the governmental bodies in addressing their shortcomings.

Ahead of issuing the latest report, NAO said it carried out 97 monitoring missions to ensure this and created 142 new and 35 follow up reports. The 2020-2021 report, of which the Daily Tribune published detailed reports yesterday, spans various sectors, including economic, social, service, health, environmental and others.

The NAO report also focuses on Bahrain’s battle against the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.

Digitalisation delays

Delay in developing a national plan for digital transformation was amongst the shocking findings revealed by NAO.

The report blames the delay on governmental agencies, despite the efforts of the Supreme Committee for Information and Communication Technology in this regard since June 30, 2020.

NAO found that the Information and eGovernment Authority was not up to the task and failed to act in a time bound manner in preparing and developing plans for recovery and business continuity.

Moreover, the iGA, NAO said, delayed the renewal of some of the contracts for electronic systems licences, despite their importance. In some cases, the delays were over eight months after their expiry, while others were up to date. NAO said this delay might have resulted in receiving zero updates and technical support and increased security risks.

iGA responds

The Information and eGovernment Authority said that work is underway to develop a network to connect the recovery centre and upgrade its efficiency.

The new centre, iGA said, is expecting its launch in January 2022. On renewing software licences, iGA said it informed the project managers six months before the expiry dates to start tendering process to allow the contract management department to obtain necessary approvals.

Revenues drop 28%

The annual report also indicated that the consolidated final account of the state showed a decrease in revenues by 28%, from 2,902 million dinars in 2019 to 2,082 m dinars in 2020.

NAO attributes this decline to decreases in oil prices and natural gas revenues from 2090 million dinars to 1233 m dinars. The report highlight that the state’s public debt balance as of December 31, 2020, is 15 billion dinars, compared to about 13.6 bn dinars in 2019.

The report also found a 43% decline in the Future Generations Reserve Fund to $521 million in 2020 from $918 m in 2019. NAO attributed this decline to the temporary postponement of the allocated oil revenues to the Fund until the end of the year fiscal year 2020.