On 14–16 September, representatives of Malta’s Supreme Audit Institution (SAI) visited the National Audit Office. The guests came to Lithuania as part of the Erasmus+ Job-Shadowing Mobility Program, seeking to gain a closer insight into our institution’s experience in strengthening communication, building public trust and increasing the impact of audit. Our Maltese colleagues chose the National Audit Office for their placement because of its international reputation and best practices in these areas.
  
The agenda for the three-day visit was dynamic and filled with practical insights. A model for stakeholder engagement throughout the audit cycle – from the initial stages to the collection of feedback – was presented to colleagues from the Malta‘s SAI. The guests also met with the Auditor General, Irena Segalovičienė, and visited the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania, where they met with representatives of the Seimas Committee on Audit and gained a closer understanding of the relations between the National Audit Office and the Seimas.
  
During the visit, the National Audit Office also presented its approach to organisational performance evaluation, strategic management and how performance indicators help to ensure the continuous improvement of the institution’s processes. Experience was also shared on how the annual work plan is drawn up, the criteria used to select the most relevant audit topics, and how digital tools are applied in practice. Colleagues were also shown the path from the recommendations made by the National Audit Office to tangible changes, and were given a demonstration of the ARIS data exchange platform, designed to monitor the implementation of recommendations, as well as the new Public Sector Progress and Risk Dashboard tool.
  
Experts from the Malta's SAI were interested in the National Audit Office's communication strategy and practical examples of how to translate the findings of audit reports into clear messages for the public, how to make the most of visual content, and how to ensure smooth coordination between auditors and communications specialists.
  
At the end of the visit, there was a mutual exchange of experience and best practice, discussing the Malta's SAI communication strategy and further opportunities for cooperation. Such placements not only strengthen international cooperation amongst auditors but also inspire the search for even more efficient ways of communicating the value of public sector auditing to the public.

The 2026 autumn report on the implementation of recommendations, published by the National Audit Office, notes that some of the most significant changes over the past six months have been achieved in the field of social protection. Following the implementation of high importance audit recommendations, more support is now being provided to children without parental care and their carers, while support for people who have experienced domestic violence has become more accessible and integrated.
  
“The fact that the share of children in care within a family environment has reached almost 83 percent, while specialised support for victims of violence has increased fourfold, demonstrates the maturity of the state, the consistent efforts of state and municipal institutions, and a responsible approach to implementing audit recommendations. These are not reforms on paper, but real solutions that are changing people’s lives,” says Auditor General Irena Segalovičienė.
  
State support has encouraged people to feel more confident about fostering older children and children with disabilities
  
One of the most important objectives in the field of child care remains the aim of ensuring that more children who have been deprived of parental care are brought up not in care institutions, but in a safe, family-like environment. In implementing the recommendations of the National Audit Office’s 2022 audit “Ensuring the rights and interests of the child in the child care and adoption”, the basic package of family services has been supplemented with specialised support from foster care centres, aimed not only at the children themselves but also at foster carers, emergency foster carers and adoptive parents.
  
At the same time, support for foster families has been strengthened: the level of income required to maintain a participant has been increased, and foster families caring for or looking after more than six children are now permitted to have three participants rather than two. Furthermore, a new form of care has been established – permanent carers who are able to care for a child with whom they have no family ties.
  
These decisions have yielded tangible results: the proportion of children in temporary and permanent care within a family environment rose to 82.8 percent in 2025 (in 2021, this stood at 77 percent), while the share of children looked after by emergency foster carers rose from 4 percent to 5.8 percent. The measures implemented encouraged more people to foster or adopt older children, children with disabilities or health problems, as well as siblings. The share of such children growing up in a family environment rose from 67.8 percent (in 2021) to 72 percent (in 2025).
  
Support was provided to 82 percent of victims of violence who were reported to the police
  
Significant progress has also been made in providing support to victims of domestic violence. Through consistent efforts to raise public awareness, according to a survey by the Ministry of Social Security and Labour, the share of the population aware of the activities of specialised integrated assistance centres (SKPC) rose from 12 percent (2021) to 28 percent (2024). To further increase this awareness, three further awareness-raising campaigns were launched from the start of 2026 to help people recognise various forms of violence, while training programmes were introduced for public sector staff and SKPC employees to enable them to refer individuals more quickly to the services where they would receive the necessary support.
  
Taking into account the recommendations of the National Audit Office’s 2022 audit, “Performance of crisis management, specialized assistance centres”, legislation has been amended to enable the SKPC and other support organisations to share the necessary data, making it easier for individuals to access all the support they require. Requirements should also be established for the premises of support centres to ensure that support is physically accessible and that counsellors help individuals choose the most appropriate form of support.
  
The results of these changes are reflected in a significant increase in the number of people receiving support. In 2022, 22 percent of individuals in respect of whom the police had received reports of domestic violence received specialised, integrated support. By 2025, this figure has risen to 82 percent.
  
Support from various specialists has also become more accessible: the share of people who received at least one legal consultation rose from 10 percent to 18 per percent, while the share of people who received legal assistance remotely increased more than fivefold – from 4 per percent (in 2022) to 22 percent (in 2025). The share of people who received a live consultation with a psychologist at the centre increased from 29 percent (in 2021) to 40 percent (in 2025).
  
The National Audit Office monitors the implementation of recommendations on an ongoing basis and actively cooperates with the audited entities following the audit. Up-to-date information on the status of the implementation of recommendations is published on the National Audit Office’s website: Open Data | National Audit Office of the Republic of Lithuania. A report on the status of the implementation of recommendations is submitted to the Seimas and published twice a year – in March and September. What changes are taking place in Lithuania and where risks arise, based on data collected by the National Audit Office, can also be monitored using the tool Public Sector Progress and Risk Dashboard.

Lithuania plans to renovate nearly 2.2 million square metres of state and municipal public buildings by 2030. An audit carried out by the National Audit Office, entitled “Improving the Energy Efficiency of Public Buildings“, shows that by 2025 only about one-fifth of the planned area have been renovated. Around EUR 681 million would be required to implement the remaining projects. If funding is not secured in time, it will not be possible to renovate almost half of the planned area of public buildings by 2030.
  
However, the problem is not just about money or pressing deadlines. According to the National Audit Office’s assessment, the state lacks a system to ensure that investments are channelled specifically to those buildings that are essential for the performance of state functions and which yield the greatest return to the budget.
  
„Today, we are renovating not what is most cost-effective for the state, but whatever is submitted first. Having invested millions, we do not even check whether the promised savings have remained merely on paper. First and foremost, we must not ask where to find a further 681 million euros, but where it would be worthwhile and beneficial to invest them. The aim must be not square metres on paper, but real savings of taxpayers’ money. We are seeing mismanagement of assets, so responsible changes are essential,” says Auditor General Irena Segalovičienė.
  
Maintaining state property is becoming more expensive, yet the need for it is not being assessed
  
The audit revealed that none of the ministries or municipalities surveyed assesses how many buildings and what floor area are required to carry out public functions, nor how efficiently this property is being used. Nor is there a system in place to encourage regular reviews of managed assets and the disposal of buildings or floor space no longer required for their functions.
  
Meanwhile, the cost to the state of maintaining this property is rising. Between 2020 and 2024, the costs of maintaining state-owned property doubled from EUR 176 million to EUR 354 million due to rising energy prices, the increasing cost of maintenance and repair services, and rising labour and other operating costs, even though the total floor area under management decreased by 8.4 percent during this period.
  
Therefore, before allocating funds for building renovation, it is important to assess not only its energy efficiency, but also whether the building will be needed by the state or municipality in the long term, and whether its entire floor area is actually being used. Investing in an unnecessary or inefficiently used building means not only spending money on its renovation – the state will also have to continue paying for its heating, repairs, maintenance and administration.
  
A smaller and more rationally utilised area of public buildings would reduce both the investment required for renovation and the annual property maintenance costs. It is estimated that, if the network of necessary buildings were properly modernised and optimised, state budget expenditure on their repair and maintenance could be reduced by at least 40 percent.
  
Renovation funds are not always channelled where they would be most beneficial
  
Having assessed how much and what kind of property is absolutely necessary for the state to carry out its functions, it is equally important to decide which of the necessary buildings should be renovated first.
  
Back in 2017, the Ministry of Energy compiled a list of energy-inefficient central government public buildings suitable for renovation. However, by the end of 2025, 71 percent of the buildings included on that list had still not been renovated.
  
One of the reasons is the lack of common planning and selection criteria to determine which buildings should be renovated first. Applications for funding were also not ranked according to potential energy savings, the area to be renovated or the cost-effectiveness of the investment. In practice, this means that a building manager who submits an application sooner may have a better chance of securing funding than a project which, for the same investment, would generate greater energy savings or reduce public expenditure.
  
Millions are invested without checking whether the promised result has been achieved
  
The prudent management of state assets does not end with the renovation of a building. It is essential to know whether the investment has actually delivered the planned result. The audit revealed that actual energy savings in renovated public buildings are not systematically monitored.
  
During the audit, 11 out of 14 (or 79 percent) of the renovated buildings assessed failed to achieve the declared heat energy savings. In these buildings, the actual heat energy savings were, on average, 40 percent lower than stated in the energy performance certificates.
  
Without monitoring actual consumption, it is impossible to say with any certainty whether the investments made in the renovation delivered the planned benefits, why the results fell short, and what changes should be made in future projects.
  
Solutions proposed by the National Audit Office
  
The National Audit Office proposes changing the very logic behind the renovation of public buildings: firstly, to decide how much and what kind of property the state and municipalities need, to dispose of unnecessary property, then to determine which buildings are most beneficial to renovate, and to allocate funding according to clear priorities; and, once the investment has been made, to verify whether the promised energy savings have actually been achieved.
  
It is recommended that the Government draw up a strategy for the centralisation of state-owned property and the reduction of total floor area. This would enable the consistent disposal of property no longer required for its intended functions and prevent investment in buildings that will no longer be needed in the long term.
  
It is recommended that the Ministry of Energy and the Ministry of Environment establish a clear system for selecting buildings and planning their renovation. Projects should be assessed on the basis of their energy-saving potential , the area to be renovated and the cost-effectiveness of the investment; furthermore, before funding is allocated, an assessment should be made of whether the building will be required in the long term.
  
It is recommended that the Lithuanian Energy Agency analyse the actual energy savings in renovated buildings, any discrepancies from the planned results and the reasons for these, and put forward proposals on how to ensure that planned energy savings are achieved in the future.