Overview
- The audit faults CESE for overly generous leave policies and recommends removing eight days of annual leave to comply with the 1,607-hour work requirement.
- A 25% reduction in membership since 2021 has not generated any state budget savings, according to the report.
- The court criticizes the costly selection process for citizen conventions and warns that the €4.2 million annual participation budget is opaque under the general appropriation.
- CESE conducts 79% of its work through self-referrals and received only 34 official requests from the government or Parliament between 2019 and 2024.
- CESE leadership has accepted the findings and begun talks with staff while political figures leverage the audit to press for deeper cuts and review of the assembly’s role.