Conducting the audit allowed NIK to comprehensively identify the issues concerning the functioning and financing of the Occupational Therapy Workshops, to determine whether the organization and functioning of the Occupational Therapy Workshops was carried out in an effective and economical manner. It also made it possible to design precise control studies in the forthcoming program of planned audit P/24/036 - Occupational therapy workshops for people with disabilities.
An ad hoc exploratory audit at the Pruszków PCPR found that subsidizing the activities of occupational therapy workshops enabled people with disabilities to participate in social life, which had a positive impact on their social rehabilitation.
Despite this, the activities of the PCPR in Pruszków, supporting vocational rehabilitation (in terms of acquiring or restoring skills necessary for employment), conducted by two workshops, operating in the Pruszków district, were ineffective, because in 2021-2022, none of their 65 participants took up employment.
An ad hoc exploratory inspection at WTZ "Ognisko" found that in 2021-2022, the workshop did not achieve the statutory goal referred to in Article 10a (1) of the Act of August 27, 1997 on vocational and social rehabilitation and employment of disabled persons, as people with disabilities participated in therapy for an average of 19 years (in a group of 35 participants). One of the wards of the "Ognisko" WTC participated in therapy for nearly 30 years.
The waiting list for WTZ admission averaged 22 people in 2021-2023, with waiting times of up to three years.
The above was due, among other things, to the low effectiveness of the actions taken by the staff of the "Ognisko" JSC, such as the lack of contacts with local employers, the lack of cooperation with the district labor office or the lack of organization of apprenticeships.
The irregularities found at PCPR in Pruszków, consisted of:
- unreliable preparation of the draft district program of activities for people with disabilities, i.e., without specifying in it the initial values and target indicators to monitor the degree of achievement of its main objective and operational goals;
- unreliable preparation of reports submitted to PFRON under Article 35c of the Rehabilitation Act, regarding funds spent on the total activity of WTZ, funds for employee salaries and the amount allocated for economic training of WTZ participants (the total amount of discrepancies amounted to PLN 131,542);
- unreliable evaluation of the annual reports on the activities of the Ognisko WTZ, for the years 2021-2022, which did not contain some of the elements indicated in § 21 (2) of the WTZ regulation, but were nevertheless evaluated positively by the PCPR.
Irregularities were found in the WTZ "Ognisko", consisting of:
- Failure to hire a psychologist from March 1, 2023 to April 18, 2023, in violation of Section 13(2) of the WTZ Ordinance;
- Failure of the first comprehensive evaluation of the implementation of individual rehabilitation programs (IPRs) by the program board of the HCT, against 11 of the 15 participants who began therapy in 2021-2023,
- Failure, over a three-year period, to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the implementation of the IPR by the program board of the JTZ, together with an indication of the position taken on the rehabilitation progress achieved by the participants, with respect to two of the 15 participants, in 2021-2023,
- Failure to assess the individual effects of rehabilitation (21 out of 41 assessments) by the WTZ program board, with respect to 15 participants (all those included in the NIK's investigation), in 2021-2023, in violation of § 14(2) of the WTZ regulation;
- Failure to specify, in the annual reports for 2021-2022 on the activities of the workshop: the necessary elements for evaluating the activities of the workshop, which was a violation of § 21 (2) (2) (d-e) and (3) of the Ordinance on the JSC.
Following the ad hoc audit and in connection with the preparation with the audit P/24/036 "Occupational therapy workshops for people with disabilities," the NIK organized a panel of experts who see the problem of vocational activation of the disabled from different perspectives.
Source: NIK
