The president of the Court of Auditors (TdC), José Tavares, argues that the State Budget bill for 2025 must move forward with changes that allow the certification of the General State Account at a time when it is anticipated that the reform of the State’s financial management will not be completed before the end of 2026.
In a hearing in Parliament on the 2022 General State Account (CGE), the president of the TdC recalled that the court is unable, due to the requirements of the Budget Framework Law, to certify the document relating to the execution of the State’s annual budgets. In particular, this requires that the State’s budgetary and financial statements be presented in the accounting system in force, the SNC-AP, the implementation of which has been delayed.
“There have been successive postponements. At the moment, it is believed that it will only happen in 2026. However, there has been no change in the law for (the CGE certification) to happen. Therefore, I would like to make this note about the need for a legal precept”, stated the president of the TdC in the hearing that took place in the parliamentary committee on Budget, Finance and Public Administration.
“There must be a legal precept by the Assembly of the Republic and, therefore, I would suggest this introduction, eventually, now in the Budget law for next year”, said the official.
Finance Minister Joaquim Miranda Sarmento has already indicated that The Government intends to move forward at the end of this year or beginning of next year with the review of the Budget Framework Law.
This past Wednesday, also in a parliamentary hearing on the CGE 2022, the Secretary of State for the Budget admitted that the completion of the public finance management reform process – included in the Recovery and Resilience Plan – is not expected before the end of 2026according to the calendar of the so-called European bazooka.
The TdC acknowledges that there has been progress since 2015, the year of the new Budget Framework Law, but criticises the delays. “We could already have the reform on the ground in all its aspects”, argued José Tavares, who in his responses to the deputies alluded to “resistance” within the public administration universe.
Furthermore, the president of the TdC does not anticipate any more delays than those already occurring. “It is possible until 2026”, he stated, not seeing “any difficulty”.
In today’s parliamentary hearing, the TdC rapporteur responsible for the CGE’s opinion, Ana Furtado, indicated that the court will, moreover, soon publish a specific report on the implementation of this reform.
Furthermore, the new report on the 2023 General State Account, which will be submitted to Parliament on October 2, will also provide new information on the implementation of the State’s new accounting framework. Rapporteur Ana Furtado provided the deputies with part of the report, indicating that “80% of the entities in the General State Account have already submitted their accounts, up to August 2024, in SNC-AP”. “Therefore, 20% is missing, despite the financial volume of this 20% corresponding to 50% of the financial volume”. In other words, the State continues to not adopt SNC-AP in half of its operations.
The next opinion to the CGE, relating to 2023, will also indicate that 11 Social Security entities presented accounts in SNC-AP for the first time, with the TdC surveying the problems in implementing the document.
Among the new features included in the CGE’s assessment will also be, this time, an analysis of the extraordinary support measure for income and the housing situation in the country, as well as an analysis of the mobility subsidy for the autonomous regions of Madeira and the Azores.
Regarding the inventory of the State’s heritage, whose shortcomings have been highlighted by the TdC, the new report will make an initial assessment of the implementation of a new information system for the management of this heritage. However, Ana Furtado indicated that, “based on six months of transition”, the result of the assessment will still be “not very enlightening”.
Source: www.jornaldenegocios.pt
