The deliberation published today in the Diário da República, signed by the board member of the INEM, establishes that the Flexible Unit for the Determination of Subsidies to Partners of the Integrated Medical Emergency System (SIEM) will be responsible for coordinating and verifying services provided by partners, aimed at subsidy payments and monitoring.
The unit is tasked with ensuring the implementation of necessary measures to comply with the cooperation agreements between INEM and the Portuguese Firefighters League (LBP), as well as the National Structure of the Portuguese Red Cross (CVP).
Furthermore, it must create mechanisms to automatically compare “data related to the required certifications (…) and those from records of activations in the Integrated Medical Emergency Dispatch System (SIADEM) and SIEM Portal”, or alternatively conduct regular analysis of this information, even by sampling.
The deliberation also states that this unit must develop new IT tools, “which include measures for reducing pending situations and their accounting recognition, when applicable.”
It assigns the new unit the duty to make necessary adaptations for “clearly identifying situations of inoperability and refusals and configuring them as penalties for non-compliance with the terms set out in the protocols.”
The activities of auditing and evaluating the Medical Emergency Posts (PEM) and Reserve Posts (PR) must also be ensured by this unit.
The audit requested by the Ministry of Health to the General Inspectorate of Finance (IGF), with conclusions disclosed at the beginning of August, highlighted risk factors such as contractual breaches by SIEM partners, lack of effective evaluation of services provided and results achieved, as well as a lack of transparency and poor financial accountability by beneficiaries of financial support, resulting in potential overlap or double financing.
In the audit report, despite being requested from various entities never publicly disclosed, the IGF states it found over 75,000 documents (vouchers) at INEM pending validation related to payments to firefighters and the Red Cross, reflecting a lack of transparency, poor accountability, and risk of double financing.
In the government’s requested audit to the National Institute of Medical Emergency (INEM), accessed by Lusa, the IGF mentions the lack of transparency, poor accountability by recipients of financial support (firefighters and the Red Cross), and the absence of “an effective evaluation of the services provided and the results achieved.”
At that time, the IGF recommended that INEM reform the process of verifying payments made to partners, expedite the implementation of new IT tools, and define measures for reducing pending situations and their accounting recognition, when applicable.
This audit primarily analyzed the period from 2021 to 2024, with the IGF stating that funding to firefighters and the Portuguese Red Cross was based on protocols, scattered orders, and various regimes, including cases “without evident regulatory framework” and highlighting “significant weaknesses” in the verification process of subsidies paid through the agreed means.
Regarding the 75,492 documents (vouchers) pending completion by partners or verification/validation by INEM (69,512 and 5,980, respectively), it notes the oldest date back to 2022, and the institute committed to developing a platform to resolve and avoid these situations.
In its response, INEM informed IGF that in the new voucher management platform, there will be a monitoring area of amounts paid per line item to each partner to evaluate the activity.
