At the same time, the SAO admits that for the retail businesses and catering establishments, for which the European Union has left the Member States with a relatively high degree of freedom concerning the regulation of their activity, several requirements necessary for ensuring the food safety have not been established in Estonia. For example, as of May 2004 the Government declared invalid the microbiological requirements applied to food groups because there are no specific requirements related to these in the other states of the European Union.
Also, the requirement that the personnel of the enterprises handling the food have to pass a medical examination once every two years, i.e. routine medical examination, has been abolished as a so-called “work accident”. The Ministry of Social Affairs is planning to re-establish the required frequency of medical examinations.
SAO found that the Health Protection Inspectorate has not adequately monitored its surveillance activities relating to the receipt of levies, which is why approximately EEK 2.5 million, or about half of the estimated potential amount might have been forfeited.
In reality, at the end of last year no state authority knew, how much of the surveillance levy was the state supposed to receive in 2003 and how much was really received, and no-one had an idea of how many enterprises had paid that levy in 2004 or failed to pay it. According to the approximate calculation by The State Audit Office, the state was supposed to receive more than EEK 5 million in the form of this levy in 2003, but received only half of it.
In the case of catering and retail business the amount of the government levy paid for surveillance activities is EEK 500 per year. Enterprises do not have to pay government levies for the recognition decision. There are more than ten thousand retail or catering businesses in Estonia.
In the opinion of the SAO, the situation related to the payment of these levies is so poor because the Inspectorate has not paid due attention to this issue, and record-keeping and the internal audit system have not been brought into conformity with the general accounting rules of the government. The Ministry of Social Affairs had not audited the activities of the Inspectorate in this respect in the last years, neither had the Tax and Customs Board.
The SAO made a proposal to the Minister of Social Affairs to ensure that the management of the Inspectorate would supplement the record-keeping and internal audit system in such a way that it would give the management of the Inspectorate a constant overview of the payment of levies and measures that are implemented on those who have not paid the levies in time. According to the response from the Minister of Social Affairs the measures are being implemented.
The SAO made a proposal to the Minister of Finance to decide whether it would be necessary to establish a government levy in connection with making decisions about the recognition of enterprises, and consider waiving the charging of government levies for surveillance activities, given that administrative expenditure on these relatively small levies is quite considerable.
