On May 15, 2018, in Sofia, Bulgaria, the Bulgarian National Audit Office (BNAO) organized, under the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the European Union, the High Level Conference entitled “The Role of Supreme Audit Institutions in increasing accountability, transparency and integrity in the Public Sector “.
High representatives of the Parliament of Bulgaria and of the supreme audit institutions of Europe took part, such as Mr. Tzvetan Tzvetkov, President of Bulgaria’s National Audit Office, Mr. Klaus-Heiner Lehne, President of the European Court of Auditors, Mr. Krzysztof Kwiatkovski, President of the National State Audit Office of Poland (NIK), Mr. Miloslav Kala, President of Supreme Audit Institution (SAI) of the Czech Republic, Mr. Wolfgang Wicklicky, General Director of the Austrian Court of Auditors (ACA), as well as the presidents of the SAIs of Slovakia, Finland, Slovenia and the SAIs of the countries of the Western Balkans.
SAI took part with a delegation chaired by Mr. Bujar Leskaj, composed of Ms. Lindita Milo (Lati), General Director and Mr. Fatos à‡oà§oli, external expert.
In his greeting speech, the President of the Bulgarian SAI, Tzvetan Tzvetkov expressed the wish and will of his institution for a full partnership of South-Western Balkan SAIs in the SAI cooperation structures of the EU Member States and offered the contribution of his office and of the Bulgarian State, in the quality of the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, for a rapid integration of South-Western Balkan SAIs and countries in the big EU family.
The President of the European Court of Auditors (ECA), Mr. Klaus-Heiner Lehne stressed the importance of ECA cooperation with the SAIs of the SEE countries, as well as developing their capacities and conducting joint audits with ECA and SAI experts of EU Member States. He mentioned the network created between the SEE SAIs as a structure that serves the exchange of information and of good audit experiences, and this way not only the modernization of the SAIs but also the integration of their countries,
In the First Panel of the Conference, entitled “Institutional Independence – A Key Factor for the Effectiveness of Supreme Audit Institutions”, the General Director of Austrian Court of Audit (ACA), Mr. Wolfgang Wiklicky and the Chairman of ALSAI, Mr. Bujar Leskaj made presentations.
Mr. Wiklicky focused in the SAIs implementation of the eight pillars of their independence, set out in the principles of the Mexican Declaration. He stressed that from a questionnaire developed by INTOSAI and the INTOSAI Development Initiative (IDI), about 50 percent of interviewed SAIs have reported problems with their independence.
The Chairman of the High State Control (ALSAI), Mr. Leskaj presented the challenges of the supreme audit institution in Albania to strengthen institutional and constitutional independence. He pointed out the approval of the ALSAI basic law in 2014 as a concrete and definitive step towards full and real independence of the institution. Chairman Leskaj brought the positive experiences of ALSAI in cooperation with stakeholders in the country as well as with the international partners, in the protection of institutional and functional independence of the institution, during the process of approving the new ALSAI law. He underlined that without the support of international partners such as the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Budget (DG-Budget) and the EU and OECD SIGMA Program, the new law entirely in line with INTOSAI’s international auditing standards would have not been possible to approve.
ALSAI Chairman emphasized the partnership of the Supreme Audit Institution in the country with the Parliament and especially with the Parliamentary Committee on Economy and Finance, with its Chairman and Secretary, as very important and vital.
The Member of the European Court of Auditors, Mr. Rimantas Sadziu described the presentation and the case of ALSAI as an example and valuable experience for SAIs that want to strengthen their institutional independence. The announcement was evaluated as a “case study” by the participants in discussion.
In the Second Panel entitled “On the Road to Value-Driven Audits”, the President of SAI of the Czech Republic, Mr. Miroslav Kala brought the experience and achievements of his institution, as well as the fruitful collaboration in joint and parallel audits. The SAI of Serbia brought the challenges of changing audit approaches from traditional to citizen-oriented audits.
In the discussion Forum “The SAI: Being a model organization for good governance”, the Auditors General and the Presidents of the SAIs of Finland, Kosovo, Slovenia and Turkey brought their vision and the efforts of their institutions to give the example of integrity and professionalism in audit work.
The Third Panel on ” Administrative Capacity Modernization of SAIs” brought the presentation of Mr. Krzysztof Kwiatkovski, President of the Polish SAI(NIK), with new ideas in terms of enhancing the governance experience of SAIs and improving the efficiency, effectiveness and economy of the use of available human and financial resources.
The Fourth Panel on “Communication with Stakeholders and Increasing the Trust of Citizens” had a large discussion on implementing new strategies in communication with partners and natural allies of the SAI, as well as on gaining citizens’ confidence in the benefits of their services.
During the two days of stay in Sofia, ALSAI’s Chairman Mr. Bujar Leskaj held working meetings with the President of BNAO, Mr. Tzvetan Tzvetkov and with Members of the BNAO Court, with Members of the European Court of Auditors, with the President of the National State Audit Office of Poland (NIK), Mr. Krzysztof Kwiatkovski, with the President of SAI of Slovakia, Mr. Karol Mitrik, with the President of Czech SAI, Mr. Miloslav Kala, with the General Auditor of Kosovo, Mr. Besnik Osmani, with the Deputy General Auditor of Macedonia, Mr. Naser Ademi, with the President of the Senate of the State Audit Office of Montenegro, Mr. Milan Dabovic and the General Auditor of SAI of Serbia, Mr. Dusko Pejovic, as well as the General Director of ACA, Mr. Wolfgang Wiklicky. In these meetings, he discussed about the progress of relations between respective SAIs and about increased partnership through exchange of shared experiences, according to INTOSAI’s motto “Experentia mutual Omnibus prodest” (From common experience gained to everyone).
