The audit found that “for some transfers, electricity suppliers were not provided with sufficient evidence of the correctness and accuracy of payments from the vulnerability fund to citizens’ accounts.”
Thus, the materials of the audit report contain information that “in the period from September to December 2025, payments worth 244.6 million lei were made without reconciliation reports with suppliers”, and other transfers worth 2.9 million lei “were made without supporting documents and in violation of the legal framework”.
The auditors found “incomplete application of internal control procedures” in the ministry that manages the fund’s resources, which “created uncertainty about the correctness of the data presented”.
Qualified opinion
As a result, the Audit Chamber issued the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection a “qualified opinion” on the agency’s consolidated financial statements. During the annual audit of the correctness of the management of state assets, the external supervisory body also identified a number of other shortcomings that influenced the auditors’ conclusions.
For example, the audit found that “the lack of comparison of data with information from employment centers allowed unreasonable provision of energy compensations to persons not entitled to them.”
Thus, 36 people who worked in the employment centers received energy compensations in the form of cash payments in the amount of 166.0 thousand lei, despite the fact that they did not meet the conditions for receiving the compensation.
At the same time, 209 deceased persons were included in the lists, who received compensations in the amount of 183,3 thousand lei for the periods after their death. The information system is not updated in time, despite the authorities’ assurances about the strengthening of targeting, which resulted in a significant reduction of the lists of vulnerable persons in the last heating season.
“As a result of untimely updating of information on the status of beneficiaries based on the information/lists in the Energy Vulnerability Information System, inaccurate lists were transmitted to the National Social Insurance Fund for payment,” the Court of Accounts report said.
