In a Parliamentary session at the Committee on Budget, Finance, and Public Administration, António Ferreira dos Santos stated that the General Inspectorate of Finance (IGF) “feels some regret.”
“The Ministry of Finance enacted a reform from which the IGF was excluded,” he noted, explaining that the rationale is tied to the other general inspectorates that operate in areas outside the financial sector.
“We are patiently awaiting a reform of inspection functions. Currently, we feel some regret and have struggled to explain this to our human resources,” he said, noting that despite recent hiring efforts, new recruits have already left “because there are countless entities that offer better pay.”
“These challenges have been significant, and it has been difficult to explain to our human resources why we were left out of this reform,” he stated, expressing the hope that this issue “will be resolved swiftly as it has indeed harmed our internal environment.”
During the hearing, António Ferreira dos Santos reported that the entity currently has 190 personnel, including leaders and employees, with “the entry of 22 new inspectors confirmed for October 1,” compared to 133 at the end of 2020 when this administration took office, marking “an increase of almost 60% over five years.”
Last year, the IGF conducted 338 actions, audited 202 entities, and produced 143 reports, auditing a total of 26 billion euros, in addition to five billion euros in European funds, as revealed in the hearing.
