On the occasion of publication of the Audit Report of the Annual Financial Report of the Ministry of Trade and Industry for 2016 by the National Audit Office (NAO), MTI provides this clarification:
MTI welcomes the Audit Report published by the NAO, the results and the conclusions drawn, and same time is delighted to confirm that this report introduces Ministry of Trade and Industry as one of the most successful institutions in terms of annual financial statements, good governance, financial management and public finance control for 2016.
In the overall conclusions of the report it is noted that MTI has made good progress in implementing CAO’s recommendations, where out of 10 recommendations that the CAO assigned to MT I to address during 2016, six of them were implemented completely, while remaining are in the process of final completion.
CAO states that based on the last two years reports, MTI has made continuous progress in implementing the CAO’s recommendations, compared to 2014 when there were altogether 22 recommendations, their number has dropped to 10 in 2015. While, as seen from the last report, the recommendations for MTI for 2016 have been reduced in to only 5.
The Audit Report has evaluated the governance and efficiency of MTI's management and control systems. One of the important conclusions outlined in this report is that the 'Conclusion is unmodified', meaning that the financial statements present a true and fair view about all findings.
Regarding the CAO recommendation related to human resources, respectively on harmonizing wages with coefficients, MTI explains that this issue was inherited from the 2012-2014 government. With respect to CAO’s recommendation, MTI states that has taken all necessary actions to harmonize the coefficients, and this issue will be regulated upon entering into force the ranks system at the central level, and the MTI only has harmonized job descriptions for all civil servants.
The conclusions drawn from the Audit Report confirm MTI's commitment toward good governance, cost-efficiency, transparency and accountability in the governance process and responsible and efficient management of public finances.