A Finance audit warns of the lack of unique rules and effective control mechanisms for subsidies paid by the National Civil Protection Authority to fire departments and highlights the risk of double financing.
The conclusions of the audit, to which Lusa had access, also indicate that the process of checking expenses does not have any automatic data integration behind it and does not always include the transmission of information in sufficient detail – for example, the identification of firefighters who make up the teams -, making data crossing unfeasible and increasing situations of excess payments.
The audit by the General Inspectorate of Finance (IGF) covered the 2021/2023 three-year period and aimed to verify the legality, regularity and correct application of public subsidies granted by the National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority (ANEPC) to fire departments and evaluate the existing monitoring, control and transparency mechanisms.
In the 2021/2023 three-year period, funding from public sector entities for humanitarian firefighters associations totaled 712 million euros.
According to the report, of this total, 306 million were paid by ANEPC, 154 million by the National Institute of Medical Emergency (INEM) and 254 million by local authorities.
Despite the weight of this financing, it “is not the result of a single and integrated regulatory framework”, warn Finance inspectors.
“Furthermore, there are no coordination or articulation mechanisms between all granting entities, despite the convergence of some purposes of the grants granted, with the corresponding risk of double financing”, says the IGF.
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