Extreme Cold Era: Shelter Don't Keep Waste-Chapter 761 - 714: Combating Corruption and Unification

Perfikot's reform is actually not complicated; overall, it is aimed at improving administrative efficiency by establishing two new departments within the existing cabinet framework.

One department, the Audit Department, is responsible for reviewing the rationality of all government plans, as well as auditing the financial expenditures of each plan to confirm their reasonableness and identify any unnecessary expenses.

To this end, the Ministry of Finance needs to formulate a financial budget every quarter and an overall government budget each fiscal year.

The Audit Department will then audit government expenditures based on the budget formulated by the Ministry of Finance to ensure that all spending is as much as possible within the budget plan, avoiding unnecessary waste.

This is necessary because when Perfikot reassessed the cabinet's execution situation of the Floating Battleship Plan after she left, she found the cabinet severely lacked cohesive planning, with repeated constructions for the same project not being isolated cases.

Additionally, the Ministry of Finance used to make budget plans, but these budget plans were only a reference.

Government departments did not execute spending according to the budget but used it merely as a reference, without strictly controlling expenses according to the financial budget, only looking at how much money their department could spend this year.

Almost all departments spent money without plans, and once funding ran out, they reached out to the treasury for more.

A project often required multiple funding additions to be completed, and during this process, the funds allocated from the treasury were often not directly used for the project but were distributed layer by layer, with each person taking a cut.

In Perfikot's investigation, she was shocked to find that from the moment funds were allocated by the Ministry of Finance until they were finally used for project expenses, at least a third of the funds were carved away throughout the entire process.

And this does not even account for the fabricated expenses on project costs and various kickbacks.

Perfikot's rough estimate yielded a stunning result: often more than two-thirds of the funds would vanish, with less than a third truly spent on the project.

During the prosperous times of the Victor Empire, when the treasury was well-stocked, various corrupt activities were well-concealed.

After all, amidst flourishing prosperity and lavish extravagance, who could see the scheming and opportunism behind it all?

But when the doomsday winter arrived, the Empire experienced another winter beyond the natural climate.

The treasury was emptied, and a massive amount of funds, along with wealth plundered from the three nations of the old world, were piled up to create the present Northern Territory.

People seemingly only saw Perfikot establishing the current prosperity of the Northern Territory within just three years but failed to see exactly how much money and resources were spent behind it.

In the latter stages of the entire plan, if not for the Queen subsidizing the treasury with Royal Family assets, the treasury might have collapsed in the end.

In this process, it's already impossible to find out just how much money was embezzled and how many resources were wasted.

If accountability were to be pursued, Perfikot would likely have to kill all interest-related groups from top to bottom in the Northern Territory before it's possible.

But doing so would probably lead to a massacre between merchants and nobles across the Northern Territory.

Hence, Perfikot has no intention of pursuing past issues.

However, regarding future government budget and project execution after she took over the Empire, she would not allow such situations to occur.

That is why the Audit Department was established to review all government spending and block corruption loopholes at the source.

Of course, if only this were done, the impact would be very limited.

To further eliminate corruption, Perfikot set up a monitoring department under the Audit Department, responsible for investigating the flow of funds and execution status of government plans.

If anyone is found guilty of corruption, abusing power, neglecting duties, or dereliction of duty, they will face arrest and severe punishment by the monitoring department.

For this reason, Perfikot even granted this department, named the Purge Corruption and Negligence Commission, independent investigative and arrest powers, allowing them to initiate investigations and arrests without anyone's permission.

However, Perfikot did not give them the power of judgment, meaning they can only investigate and arrest, leaving trials and sentencing to the judicial authorities.

Despite knowing this approach would allow some to exploit loopholes and evade punishment, she also clearly understands that granting investigation, arrest, and judgment powers to one department would breed a terrifying monster.

Her aim is simply to improve government efficiency and reduce corruption, not to nurture a frightening power monster.

Compared to the Audit Department, the other department Perfikot established seems much less noticeable.

This department, named the Coordination Department, is solely responsible for the management and coordination of government projects, without significant power.

Perfikot previously noticed severe territorialism among various Empire departments, with tight control over their own interests and issues, while they tend to shirk whenever other departments request assistance.

This creates a very adverse phenomenon where matters that require just a bit of communication between two departments often went back and forth several times before they were clarified.

If things were resolved and done, that would be fine, but the result is that even after clarifying, issues remain unresolved due to the tug-of-war of interests between departments.

In such situations, having a department that can cross departments for coordination and management is very necessary.

They can facilitate coordination and communication between departments, and their powers ensure they can compel two conflicting departments to work obediently.

Meanwhile, they can effectively plan ongoing projects to prevent waste when the same project is executed separately by two departments.

It might sound incredible, but Perfikot found more than one project with such issues during her review of the Floating Battleship Plan, which made her blood pressure rise considerably.

After rigorously handling a batch of inept officials, Perfikot then entertained the idea of establishing the Coordination Department.

Her reform began with these two departments, hoping that through these newly established departments, Victor's political situation could have a new appearance, promoting Perfikot's conceptions with higher efficiency and lower cost.

After all, she aims to construct a Floating City, a marvel not typically inexpensive.