This Friday, the deputies unanimously approved the report and management accounts of the Assembly of the Republic for 2021, a diploma that had already received a favorable opinion from the Court of Auditors on 5 July.
According to the document, parliament managed a budgeted total of 172.9 million euros, including transfers to autonomous entities and subsidies to political parties and election campaigns.
The general level of implementation was 76.7% and, relative to the total expenditure on the activity of the Assembly of the Republic, of 72.5 million, there was an implementation rate of 72.5%.
In this document it is read in comparative terms that the verified execution rate in the “total expenditure – activity of the Assembly of the Republic – of 72.5% is higher than that verified in 2020 (70.1%) due to in part due to the slight recovery of the activity of the Assembly of the Republic in 2021, but it was also due to the continuation of a spending cut policy”.
A policy that, according to the parliament, has “led the budget implementation of the Assembly of the Republic and the appropriate captivations”.
“It should be noted that, after deducting the value of the captivation (2.021 million euros), since of the original 6.7 million euros, the extinction of the captivation of 4.7 million euros was authorized, the execution rate of the activity of the General Assembly of the Republic would be 74%,” he justifies.
Parliament’s accounts relating to last year also state that government subsidies for the parties amounted to €13.9 million. Subsidies for election campaigns amounted to 33.3 million euros.
According to the document, from the implementation of the budget of the Assembly of the Republic for 2021, “a management balance – to be carried over to 2022 – of EUR 35.6 million, of which EUR 12.5 million corresponds to the balance of public subsidies for the election campaigns make up the remainder, of 25.1 million, the balance of the Assembly of the Republic”.
As regards the performance of the Court of Auditors, its report of last July justified the favorable opinion by the conclusion that “the attached budget and financial statements, in all material respects, faithfully reflect the financial position of the Republic, as at 31 December 2021” .
The Court also considers that Parliament’s financial and budgetary performance is clear, as are “cash flows for the year ended on that date, in accordance with the public sector accounting principles generally accepted in Portugal – Standardization Accounting System for Public Services (SNC-AP)”.
In this report, unlike in previous years, the same court rules that this time, as last year, “no legal deviations or errors have been discovered in the calculation of remuneration and other allowances paid to members, in accordance with the applicable regulations. statutory regulations, duly documented with the associated payment authorizations”.
“The processing, registration and payment of transport costs of the deputies were in accordance with the stated requirements (…). It should be noted that the calculation and processing of these fees is complex because there are a variety of components to regularization, which respectively follow and applying the established control procedures becomes difficult, which therefore does not guarantee that there are no inaccuracies and errors,” the report warns.
In the last part, the Court leaves some warnings to Parliament and emphasizes that: “all relevant recommendations made in the opinion and report on the account of the General Assembly of the public – Economic year 2020”.
The Court emphasizes, inter alia, that it is up to the President of the Assembly of the Republic and the Governing Council “to identify, together with the chairmen of parliamentary groups, situations of accumulation of functions and the implementation of mechanisms that ensure that, in relation to the respective support staff, full compliance with the applicable rules on exclusivity and cumulation of functions is guaranteed”.
Source: DN
