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The leaders of the Francophone Supreme Audit Institutions shared their experience of engaging citizens and other interested parties, in the public debates organized on the occasion of the meeting of the Association of Francophone Supreme Audit Institutions (AISCCUF). The event was organized between July 11-12 in the city of Bucharest, Romania.
Marian Lupu, President of the Court of Accounts of the Republic of Moldova (CoARM), presented the experience and best practices of the country's supreme audit institution in the field of communication and stakeholder involvement, to ensure the impact of the audit activity.
Understanding the importance of effective stakeholder interaction, the Court of Accounts promotes a strategic vision of systemic actions to strengthen relations with interested parties and promote improvements in the field of public finance and patrimony management, generated by the audit activity, noted the CoARM’s President.
Among the strategic directions of communication, promoted by the CoARM, a central element belongs to the most important partner - the Parliament, and the examination of audit reports by the Legislature is a fundamental component for ensuring the parliamentary control function, informed Mr. Lupu. According to the President of the CoARM, the Court of Accounts has made substantial progress in this context, with around 90% of the Court's reports being examined in the relevant Committee. This fact increases the level of information of parliamentarians regarding the management of public money and the level of implementation of audit recommendations.
Audit report review meetings are public and streamed online, which provides transparency and access to information for the media. This transparent way of mediating the results of the audit has an impact for society as well, the number of unique views of the Court's meetings on different Internet platforms is about 500 thousand annually, noted Marian Lupu.
Another strategic direction addressed by the President of the CoARM is the interaction with the audited entities, by promoting the transfer of knowledge and experience, dialogue and permanent feedback, monitoring the implementation of recommendations by using its own information system.
In the same context of communication with the audited entities, in the Republic of Moldova, according to the President of the CoARM, substantial progress has been registered, through the better organization by the Government of the process of implementing the audit recommendations. Thus, from 2021, the Government began to incorporate the most important recommendations into the annual action plans.
The Court of Accounts promotes a constant relationship with all interested non-governmental organizations, as a positive change in the trend has been observed, noted Mr. Lupu. Thus, if previously more attention was paid to the quality and content of audit reports, then recently the focus is on the implementation of recommendations by the audited entities, informed the CoARM’s President.
Marian Lupu spoke about the international evaluations of the Court of Accounts, which denote the progress made and the maintenance of the upward trend in ensuring the quality and efficiency of the activity, thereby increasing the confidence of stakeholders - the Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability Performance Assessment (PEFA), carried out by the World Bank in cooperation with the European Commission, the first international "peer review" evaluation of the Court of Accounts, carried out by SIGMA - the joint initiative of the European Union and the OECD, as well as about 4 other international evaluations.
The President of the CoARM noted the evaluation of the implementation of the National Strategy for Integrity and Anticorruption, carried out with the support of civil society experts (CAPC). According to the evaluation, during 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, and this fact demonstrates the impact of the activity and the efficiency of the cooperation with the legal bodies, Mr. Lupu concluded.
Another important aspect, emphasized by the President of the Court of Accounts, is the promotion of the status and role of the supreme audit institution within the relevant international structures. A major achievement achieved at the international level is the granting to the Court of Accounts of observer status in the Contact Committee of the Supreme Audit Institutions of the EU’s member countries, and participation in the Committee's activity will contribute to the implementation of the country's European Agenda, concluded Mr. Lupu.
Finally, the President of the Court of Accounts thanked the partners from the international organizations INTOSAI, EUROSAI, AISCCUF for the support provided and mentioned the importance of developing cooperative relations in the future, for the development of external public audit.
