Government Executive Committee discusses 2016-2017 National Audit Office report

His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Prime Minister today chaired the 207th meeting of the Executive Committee during which cases concerning the mishandling of public funds were discussed.

At the start of the meeting, His Royal Highness highlighted that the National Audit Office (NAO) report findings have helped to produce efficient and effective mechanisms to address issues of non-compliance.
 
Speaking about the findings of this year’s NAO report, which had been referred to the Government Executive Committee by the Cabinet, His Royal Highness emphasised that the principles of transparency and impartiality must continue to underpin all investigations regarding cases included in the reports.
 
During the meeting, the main findings of the 2016 – 2017 report were outlined, including a detailed explanation of all procedural and administrative measures taken to address 322 cases of non-compliance, broken down as follows:
 
o   8 cases deemed necessary to be transferred to the General Directorate of Anti-Corruption and Economic and Electronic Security
o   20 cases requiring internal investigations
o   294 cases requiring legal measures
 
His Royal Highness then highlighted that the Executive Committee has referred two of the major findings in the previous report (2015 – 2016) to the General Directorate of Anti-Corruption and Economic and Electronic Security following an internal investigation conducted by the Ministerial Committee for Legal Affairs.
 
His Royal Highness concluded by stressing the importance of addressing all issues highlighted in the NAO report, and preventing the recurrence of instances of non-compliance and the mishandling of public funds. His Royal Highness also noted the importance of maintaining cooperation amongst government institutions to make further improvements.