URU, Alm.del - 2012-13 - Bilag 230: Nye retningslinjer for rapportering af særlige sager, hvor der er mistanke om korruption eller misbrug

IndholdNOTICE FROM CENTRE FOR RESOURCES AND OPERATIONS...........................................................1INSTRUCTIONS.............................................................................................................................................. 11.2.Introduction............................................................................................................................................... 3Cases of irregularities or changes in routines and procedures in general ................................................ 32.1.2.2.2.3.What matters should be notified about? .......................................................................................... 3How to notify? ................................................................................................................................... 4Follow-up and documentation .......................................................................................................... 4

3. Cases of fraud, corruption or financial mismanagement in connection with administration of funds fordevelopment assistance .................................................................................................................................... 53.1.3.2.3.3.What matters should be notified about? .......................................................................................... 5How to notify? ................................................................................................................................... 5Follow-up and documentation .......................................................................................................... 6

4. Cases related to fraud, corruption or financial mismanagement in connection with administration offunds related to the Trade Council of Denmark................................................................................................ 64.1.4.2.5.5.1.5.2.5.3.What matters should be notified about? .......................................................................................... 7How to notify and document actions taken? .................................................................................... 7What matters should be notified about? .......................................................................................... 7How to notify? ................................................................................................................................... 7Follow-up and documentation .......................................................................................................... 8

1. IntroductionPursuant to Section 10, subsection 1 of the Auditor General’s Act, authorities administering governmentfunds are obliged to report to the Auditor General on matters relating to financial accounts and othermatters deemed to be of significance to the audit.This present Instruction specifies the Ministry of Foreign Affairs internal procedures for reporting on suchmatters and is based upon the Auditor General’s Act along with the Ministerial Instructions. The Instructionapplies to the entire Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where each paragraph specifies which procedures are to beused for each area in question – Cases of irregularities or changes in routines and procedures in general,Administration of funds for development assistance, Administration of funds related to the Trade Council ofDenmark and Administration of visa, passport and driving licences.

The Auditor General should be notified about any errors or irregularities in existing administrativeprocedures, and about changes in routines and procedures, which are of significance to its audit. The dutyof information also applies to irregularities of which the financial impact is not immediately apparent, but isexpected to be of significance for the appraisal of the legality of the administration or its efficiency.This implies that, as a rule,individual casesof fraud, misappropriation, loss or theft of money or othervaluables, incidents of bribery, major breach of contracts or legal disputes with financial implications shallbe reported to the Auditor General.The duty of information in individual cases is conditional upon whether or not the case in question may beconsidered material. This also applies in cases of error, irregularity or fraud.In addition, it must be reported if there are reasons tosuspectthe occurrence of irregularities or fraud. Inpractice, this will for instance be the case where suspicion of fraud causes an investigation and wherepreliminary findings seem to indicate the occurrence of fraud.Cases of minor financial implications are not subject to duty of information, including for instanceunintentional minor cash differences, absence of documentary evidence for minor amounts, temporarydelays in bookkeeping entries, or other similar temporary slackness of administrative procedures that donot reflect irresponsible administration.It also implies that anychanges of routines or proceduresin ministerial instructions, guidelines or similardocuments concerning financial management or organization within the Ministry, implementation of newinstructions etc., shall be reported to the Auditor General.

It is the responsibility of the unit which discovers an irregularity e.g. to submit a report to[email protected]immediately, and not later than 14 days after the suspicion has been raised, the casehas occurred or the routine/procedure has been changed. The submitted report should be formed as aletter, which can be forwarded directly to the Auditor General. File number 102.G.36.a.3 is to be used forthe letter.Letters presentingindividual casesmust include the following information:the jurisdiction where the matter in question has occurredthe time at which the matter in question has occurreda description of the character, extent and course of events of the matter in questioninformation on measures taken (reporting the matter to the police, audit investigations,suspension, dismissal, changes of control procedures, etc.)assessment of the responsibility for the occurrence of the matter established (deficientadministrative regulations, negligence, inadequate supervision and control, criminal intent, etc.)recommendations on the further development of the case, including possible sanctions and claimsfor compensation brought against the persons involvedassessment of the time required to bring the matter to a conclusionLetters presenting changes ofroutines and procedures, etc.must provide a brief description of the intendedor implemented administrative changes and the intended purpose of these. The time when the changeswill be implemented is to be stated, as well as the particular sub-area within the Ministry’s administrationwhere the change is to take place.Any questions in relation to what to include and how to draft the letter may also be addressed to[email protected].

If a case cannot be concluded in one letter, the responsible unit is to follow up upon the case at regularintervals and report immediately, if new information occurs to[email protected].Again, the report is to bepresented as a letter and written in a format that can be forwarded immediately to the Auditor General.Controller registers all reports sent to the Auditor General that comprise, among other things, informationon the date of the next follow-up. Controller is to perform regular follow-ups on cases not yet concluded,and issue reminders to the respective units concerning cases for which the deadline for an update reporthas been exceeded.Controller must carry out collation and editing of all reporting letters to the Auditor General and must takesteps to submit the letter, with a copy to relevant units.

3. Cases of fraud, corruption or financial mismanagement in connectionwith administration of funds for development assistanceThe following practice applies to the development assistance funds administered by the Foreign Serviceand the funds administered by others (authorities in recipient countries, international organizations,institutions, NGOs etc.).

Any probable cause to suspect fraud, corruption or financial mismanagement in connection with theadministration of development assistance funds must be reported.The obligation to notify the Auditor General includes all substantial cases of the aforementionedirregularities. This implies that, as a rule, notification will not be relevant in cases of e.g. burglary or simpletheft committed by third-parties (not employees of program or partner institutions), unintentional minorcash differences, liquidation/bankruptcy, lack of documentation for small amounts, temporary delays inbookkeeping and other similar, temporary delays in administrative procedures that are not considered toreflect irresponsible administration. Incidents caused by traffic accidents, fire, natural disasters or similarshall not be reported, unless there is suspicion of deliberate and ill intentions behind the incident.If the reporting unit initiates a forensic audit or other investigation performed by external personnel, it is inparticular necessary to report the matter.Matters about irregularities concerning multilateral assistance are reported to the Auditor General only ifthese are of certain magnitude or have a character, which specifically relates to Danish interests (e.g.contract with Danish companies).Relevant incidents must be attended to without unnecessary delay and reported to KVA via the c-casesystem (re. below) no later than two weeks after the irregularities have come to the attention of the unitresponsible for the grant. In cases of doubt whether to report or not Quality Assurance and FinancialManagement of Development Cooperation (KVA) must be consulted.

The case must be submitted by the unit responsible for the grant via the web based c-case system on theintranet of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Detailed description on how to report is found in the c-casesystem. The unit responsible for the grant is requested to estimate the suspected amount of the potentialloss of Danish funds (Danish share) involved in the incident and report it via the c-case system.In addition to the reporting to the Auditor General it is mandatory to inform the Minister for DevelopmentCooperation if the incident involves a suspected amount (potential loss) of Danish funds of 1 million DKK ormore. However, incidents involving a suspected potential loss below 1 million DKK should also be reportedto the Minister if special reasons warrant this (political aspects, publicity etc.). Furthermore, for specialcases the notification to the minister should include a recommendation to inform The Foreign AffairsCommittee and the Finance Committee of the Danish Parliament. Special cases are cases of greatermagnitude with a potential loss of more than DKK 10 millionandcases of a principal significance, e.g. casesthat involve members of the government of the recipient country. It is the responsibility of the unit

responsible for the grant to carry out any notification of the minister including a draft report to theparliamentarian committees if applicable.The report sent to KVA via the c-case system should explain the matter in a clear and precise way, includingamount involved and actions taken to investigate and/or rectify the matter. The report will be forwarded tothe Auditor General via Controller.By default, the letter sent to the Auditor General will be published on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’website. Under special conditions the letter or parts of it can be exempted publication cf. Law of publicaccess to files (Offentlighedsloven).For notification of cases regarding development assistance, file numbers 102.G.36.a.2. and 104.DAN.6-6.c.are to be used along with the file number chosen by the responsible unit. For reports to theparliamentarian committees file number 104.DAN.6-6.f. must be used.

There are two ways of following-up on a c-case:To submit a report to the Auditor General via the c-case system.This option is chosen when there is a development in the case with new events or informationregarding the case since last report sent to the Auditor General.To create a follow-up note in the c-case system for future documentation.This option is chosen if there has been no substantial development in the case since last report sentto the Auditor General. The follow-up note contains information on actions taken and eventshappened in connection with the case since last report or follow-up note, the reason for choice ofnew follow-up date and the reason for not informing the Auditor General at time of creation of thefollow-up note.

It is the responsibility of the unit responsible for the grant to consider and document whether or not tosubmit a report continually and at least every six months until the case is closed. The report(s) and thefollow-up note(s), saved in the c-case system, serve as documentation. You can find former C-cases sent tothe Auditor Generalhere.When submitting a follow-up report to the Auditor General through the c-case system, the unit responsiblefor the grant must also submit a follow-up report for cases reported to the Foreign Affairs Committee andthe Finance Committee of the Danish Parliament, and under no circumstances less than one reportannually.

It is the responsibility of the unit, which experiences the loss etc. to submit a report to[email protected]immediately and not later than 14 days after the loss etc. has occurred. The submitted report should beformed as a letter, which can be forwarded directly to the Auditor General. The submitted report shouldexplain the matter in a clear and precise way, including amount involved and actions taken to reclaim theamount from the customer.The general file number to be used for the letter is 102.G.36.a.3. Any questions in relation to what toinclude and how to draft the letter may also be addressed to[email protected]or[email protected].The report will be forwarded to the Auditor General via Controller.

5. Cases related to administration of visa, passport and driving licences.The following practice applies to all aspects of the Foreign Service’s administration of visa stickers,passports (emergency passports, laissez-passer, EU emergency passports, Danish passports to be deliveredto applicants, foreign passports delivered to the representation if application for visa or residence permit)and driving licences including data cards.

The duty of information applies to any probable cause to suspect fraud, bribery, corruption,misappropriation, loss or theft of visa, passport and driving licence, which is of significance for theassessment of the legality of the administration or the effectiveness of the administration. It also applies tocases of failure to comply with material provisions of statutes or instructions and of material errors ofjudgement or omissions in connection with the processing of cases. In addition to this, the duty ofinformation applies in connection with changes to routines and procedures.

It is the responsibility of the unit, which discovers an irregularity to submit a report to the Consular ServiceDepartment (BVP) immediately, and no later than 14 days after the suspicion has been raised, the case hasoccurred, or the routine/procedure has been changed. The report should be sent to[email protected](copy to[email protected]).BVP and Controller are available for providing advice on drafting the report.When the report is received BVP will decide if further investigation is to be conducted in cooperationbetween BVP, the Personnel Department (HR) and the Security Department (SIK) or another office, withBVP chairing the proceedings.BVP will inform and update Controller about developments in the case, and BVP will via Controller informthe Auditor General about the case.Controller will submit a copy of the notification to the Auditor General to relevant units.

If a case cannot be concluded in one letter, the responsible unit needs to follow up upon the case at regularintervals and report immediately to BVP, if new information occurs ([email protected]). All follow-up reports areto be presented as a letter and written in a format that can be forwarded immediately to the AuditorGeneral.Upon receipt, BVP will forward the letter to Controller ([email protected]) who will send the final letter tothe Auditor General, as all reporting to the Auditor General must be submitted through Controller.Controller will submit a copy of the letter to relevant units.