site.btaGovernment Approves Public Financial Inspection Agency's 2022 Performance Report

The government approved Wednesday the Public Financial Inspection Agency's (PFIA) 2022 performance report. The report states that in 2022, the PFIA authorities completed 419 financial inspections and audits related to the expenditure of public funds. The funds found to have been spent inappropriately totalled BGN 2,331,194, of which BGN 1,562,656 had been recovered by the time the financial inspections were completed and directions under the Public Finance Inspection Act were issued for the remainder.

A total of 640 alerts and requests for financial inspections were received. Of these, 628 are signals and requests that fall within the competence of the PFIA and 12 have been referred to other state bodies.

As in the previous reporting period, in 2022, the largest share of all financial inspections carried out were those in municipalities (66%), followed by other budget holders under the state budget (15%), commercial companies with state or municipal capital participation (13%), budget holders under municipal budgets (4%), and other entities (2%).

The 28 financial inspections carried out identified 125 indicators of fraud. In 2022, 24 financial inspections of recipients (beneficiaries) of EU funds and programmes identified and recorded irregularities in the spending of funds granted under 26 funding contracts.

Another 282 inspections were carried out on the assignment and execution of public contracts, which represents 67 % of all financial inspections carried out. 1,008 public procurement contracts were audited, involving a total expenditure of BGN 7,069,041,023. In 403 of these, with a total value of BGN 3,068,680,311, irregularities were detected, accounting for 40% of all the public procurements checked.

There has been a reduction in the culpable damage found in financial inspections to the organisations and persons audited. In 2022, they totalled BGN 3,694,627, a decrease of 30% compared to 2021. Damages recovered during the reporting period were six times higher than in 2021.