Centralisation of support services of state authorities Read full text in English
1 Failure to take into account the price increase
Not having the saving on cost
Centralisation of support services did not bring about compliance with the objective of saving on costs. In reality, labour costs of employees associated with financial, personnel and wage accounting, costs of premises necessary for the rendering of service (rent and utilities) and costs associated with information systems increased. According to the data of Statistics Estonia, gross wages of the public sector have increased by 42% in the same period, so the increase of labour costs is foremost due to the growth of average gross wages.
2 Poor analysis
Higher cost of the project
Carrying out the project of centralising support services has proved to be one-quarter more expensive than planned. The actual cost of the project during the period 2010-2016 was 6.83 million euros, 4.13 million of which was used for investments and 2.7 million euros for operating costs. The main reason for the project being more expensive is the price increase of developing and implementing the self-service portal for state employees (RTIP), because it was not analysed thoroughly enough which functionalities the portal should have and what costs it would bring upon creating RTIP.
Background
On 29 December 2009, the Government of the Republic decided to initiate a project for the centralisation of support services in order to free state authorities of the obligation to provide, develop and invest in support services. The objective was to make the quality and effectiveness of accounting better, improve the availability of financial and personnel information, and reduce the number of employees associated with accounting as well as operating costs accompanying them. On 28 May 2015, the government decided to transfer the financial, personnel and wage accounting of all ministries and authorities in their area of government to the State Shared Service Centre, and a further objective was added to create jobs for the rendering of accounting services outside the capital.
Upon initiating the project, the budget was set at 5.5 million euros; 3.77 million of this for investments and 1.73 million euros for operating costs.
Objectives
The National Audit Office audited whether the centralisation of state's support services has met the established objectives. In order to give assessments, the National Audit Office carried out an audit and used the results of earlier audits.