The SAO started auditing the national emergency stocks at the beginning of this year

3/19/2004 | 12:00 AM

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TALLINN, 19 March 2004 - As from January, the SAO has been auditing the Ministry of Agriculture and, in this context, the management of the emergency stocks of cereals as well. In addition, this year’s audits will cover the emergency stocks of food, medicinal products and rescue equipment.

At the beginning of the year, the SAO asked the Ministry of Agriculture to produce and analysed a number of documents concerning the national emergency stocks of cereals. Special attention will be paid to the Ministry’s control system, as its weaknesses have enabled the grand theft of government property.

The cereal stocks have attracted the attention of the SAO in earlier years as well. Last year, when we analysed the economic transactions effected by the Ministry of Agriculture in 2002, we noted that for several years the sales prices determined applied for cereals in connection with renewing the stocks have constantly been lower than the acquisition prices. In the audit made in 2001 and pertaining to the accounts kept on the emergency stocks of food grains, the SAO pointed out the low efficiency of the internal controls of the Ministry of Agriculture and made proposals to improve the administration of monetary items related to transactions with cereal stocks.

At the end of last year, in the context of preparing the work plan for 2004, the SAO decided to carry out a systematic audit of all the national emergency stocks and their administration. In addition to the auditing of emergency stocks of cereals kept by the Ministry of Agriculture, the emergency stocks of medicinal products and equipment kept by the Ministry of Social Affairs and the emergency stocks of fire-fighting and rescue equipment kept by the Ministry of Internal Affairs will be examined.

In the autumn, the Auditor General will provide a comprehensive report on the national emergency stocks to the Parliament in the framework of the annual overview of the use and preservation of government property.


Sven Soiver
Press Representative of State Audit Office
Telephone: (372) 640 0787
GSM: (372) 53 414464
E-mail: [email protected]

  • Posted: 3/19/2004 12:00 AM
  • Last Update: 7/24/2020 1:13 PM
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