SNAO Project

The cooperation projects with the Swedish National Audit Office (2007-2017)

The Swedish National Audit Office (SNAO) is the supreme audit institution of Sweden and also a member of the international organization INTOSAI. The institution implements multiple international cooperation projects and offers support to the supreme audit institutions from other countries in order to help them gain institutional maturity. Over the last years, SNAO was and remains to be the main partner of the CoARM in the institutional development field.

The cooperation between the 2 supreme audit institutions has started in 2007 within the first Cooperation Agreement that launched the first Institutional Development Cooperation Project CoARM-SNAO for 2007-2009. The general objective of the project was to contribute to the improvement of the capacity of the Court of Accounts to carry out better audits and to promote a greater responsibility and a more efficient management of the public resources. Regarding the financial aspects, within the first Project SNAO has contributed with 16 million Swedish Crowns.

The second Cooperation Project started in 2010 and was aimed for 2010-2013. The project was targeted towards improving the audits carried out by the CoARM and to promote a greater responsibility and a more efficient management of the public resources. The financial contribution of SNAO constituted 12 million Swedish Crowns.

In December 2012 the Court of Accounts and the Swedish National Audit Office have signed a new cooperation agreement and set up the third Cooperation Project between CoARM-SNAO for 2013-2015 (prolonged, subsequently, until 2016 and then until 2017). The financial contribution of SNAO constituted 7,5 Swedish Crowns. SNAO has assisted the CoARM in improving the capacity regarding the regularity audits, the general management, and the efficient relationships with the Parliament, Government and the audited entities as well as with INTOSAI, EUROSAI and other international organizations in this domain.

The support offered by SNAO during the implementation of all the 3 Projects had and still has a significant role in the transition process of the Court of Accounts from being a control institution to becoming a supreme audit institution.

First of all, regarding the new extern audit concept that is based on the international standards of INTOSAI and was implemented in 2008 within the Law regarding the Court of Accounts, SNAO has advocated the elaboration of an internal legal framework regarding the regularity, performance and other types of audits based on the consolidations of the capacities of the methodological department of the institution. The assistance regarding consolidating the professional abilities of the auditors within the Court of Accounts has focused on the regularity audits, the financial audits and on the quality system. The Swedish partners have given support in the context of implementing the modern management regarding the human resources and internal communication.

The assistance given in the context of the institutional consolidation has contributed to the internal audit system of the Court of Accounts and to its consolidation. Also, it has contributed to the development of the internal state financial control system.

Implementing within the activity of the CoARM of a new modern informational system that could register the time has improved the cost calculating methods of the audits and the strategic planning of the activities.

SNAO offered support and consultancy regarding the external communication within the efforts of the CoARM to improve its communication and cooperation with the Parliament. The Swedish experts have shared the EU countries experience regarding the collaboration of the supreme audit institutions and the legislative. With SNAO’s support, the auditors of the Court of Accounts have attended several international events, workshops, conferences organized within INTOSAI and EUROSAI. This has allowed them to gain an advanced experience in the audit field and to assure the implementation of the international standards and good practices in the domain. In this context, within the cooperation projects there were organized English courses in order to ease the communication of the employees of the institution at an international level.

The attention of the SNAO experts was also directed towards the training of the auditors of the Court of Accounts in various audit activities. During the implementation process there were organized several trainings and workshops. This has contributed to the acquiring of the modern methods and practices of performing different types of audit and also to improving the quality of the audit reports and to adjust their structure and content to the international standards.

With the financial help of SNAO, during 2006-2012, the Court of Accounts has edited a trimestral audit-specialized publication – Informative Bulletin. The magazine was edited in two languages – Romanian and English, and became a promoting platform of the institution’s image, of the concept of public external audit and of the results of the Court of Accounts’ activity. The Informative Bulletin was forwarded regularly to the public central authorities, the Parliament, the Government, the civil society associations, the academic for as well as to the universities and libraries. The Informative Bulletin became an information and communication instrument.

In December 208, the Parliament has approved the new Law on the Court of Accounts that entered into force on the 1^st of January 2009 and was gradually implemented. The new law lined up the legal framework of the external audit to the best international practices, guaranteeing the financial independence, preventing the interference in the audit planning and offering a better professional independence to the members of the CoARM. The law was inspired by the EU standards and was drafted with the Swedish National Audit Office and became the legal framework for the process of the gradual transformation of the Court of Accounts into a Supreme Audit Institution. The law maintains the main guidelines of the Lima Declaration regarding the audit guidance as well the Mexico Declaration regarding the independence of the supreme audit institutions, as well as the Standards of the Independence of the Supreme Audit Institutions ISSAI (the standards drafted by the international organization INTOSAI).

With the support of the Swedish experts within the institution was created an intern audit service. So, the Court of Accounts was one of the first institutions in the country that has assured the implementation of the legislation in the internal audit field. During 2009-2010 the internal audit service within the Court of Accounts was trained by the Swedish experts in order to assure the correct implementation of the good practices regarding the internal audit.

The experience gained previously from several workshops held by the SNAO experts have led to improving the capacities of the CoARM’s employees regarding the drafting of the Annual Report of the Court. Subsequently, the Annual Reports of the Court of Accounts during 2008-2009 were drafted independently and respecting the reporting good practices of the SAI.

The Project “Cooperation regarding institutional development between the Swedish National Audit Office and the Court of Accounts of the Republic of Moldova (2018-202).

The present Cooperation Project has set the main long-term objective: a supreme audit institution (SAI) that operates regarding the ISSAI international standards. In order to achieve this objective, the Court of Accounts of the Republic of Moldova has to work in the following dimensions:

Consolidate the efficient audit processes;
Improve the capacity and knowledge needed to perform quality and friendly audit reports;
Promote efficient relations with the interested parties.

The Project includes 6 components (sub-projects):