WITH DEFICIENCES OF VIEW
Youtube
Facebook
print
The State Audit Office of the Republic of Latvia organized, on August 16, the International Conference "The Power of Audit", dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the institution. The event brought together the delegations of partner Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) - Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Israel, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, as well as representatives of the INTOSAI Development Initiative (IDI). Marian Lupu, the President of the institution, led the delegation of the Court of Accounts of the Republic of Moldova (CoARM).
The event started with a round of discussions with the participation of the heads of supreme audit institutions, focused on the future prospects for external public audit and sharing the experience of communication and cooperation with interested parties.
Marian Lupu reported on the progress made by the CoARM in the field of interaction with the Parliament, audited entities, the Government, mass media, civil society and the general public. The President of the CoARM spoke about the effective relations with the Parliament, established during the recent years, with the audit reports of the Court of Accounts being regularly examined within the Public Finance Control Committee. And if by 2020 no more than 15% of the audit reports of the Court of Accounts were examined in the Parliament, then during the recent years, with the establishment of the Committee, about 90% of the reports are examined, noted Mr. Lupu.
The interaction with the audited entities takes place through permanent dialogue and feedback, monitoring the implementation of recommendations, mentioned the President of the CoARM. Regarding this chapter, the CoARM implements its own tool - the "Register of Audits" information system, which facilitates implementation monitoring and interaction with audited entities. Also, Mr. Lupu informed that in recent years the CoARM has witnessed a greater involvement of the Government in the process of implementing audit recommendations, starting from 2021 about 15-20% of the actions included in the Government's annual plans are based on audit recommendations.
Among the good examples of interaction with the media and society, the President of the Court of Accounts named the online public examination of the audit reports of the Court of Accounts, which provides transparency and access to information for the media and citizens. As a result, only in 2022, more than 600 materials and journalistic investigations were published based on the reports and activity of the Court of Accounts, and the number of unique views of the Court's meetings on various Internet platforms is about 500 thousand annually.
An important partner of the Court of Accounts is the civil society, which has recently focused its attention on how entities implement the recommendations of the Court of Accounts, mentioned the President of the CoARM, noting that during the last 3 years civil society experts participated in 5 external evaluations of the supreme audit institution. Among the most recent, Mr. Lupu exemplified the evaluation of the implementation of the National Integrity and Anti-Corruption Strategy, carried out with the support of civil society experts (CAPC), during which the experts found that in the last 4 years a damage of over 5 billion lei caused to the state was recovered, based on the findings of the Court of Accounts.
During the "Power of Audit" Conference the participants looked back on the establishment and key "turning points" in the history of the SAI of Latvia, assessed the contribution of the State Audit Office to the global growth of Latvia, the transfer of competences on an international scale, as well as discussed the future challenges in the field of external public audit at global level.
We mention that the State Office of Latvia is one of the important development partners of the Court of Accounts of the Republic of Moldova, which provides support in strengthening the institutional capacities on different dimensions of the external public audit.
