Economical support of a modern supreme audit office - The Senior Director of the Administrative Section, the SAO, Mr Radek Haubert
Seminar - 20th Anniversary of the SAO, Senate of the Parliament of the CR, 25.7.2013
Mr President,
Mrs Vice-president,
Esteemed foreign guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,
our long-term objective is a modern Supreme Audit Office. Not just modern in the sense of the use of modern technologies. Of course, modern technology is a necessary condition for high-quality work, but it is not the only one. Workforce stability tells us a lot about the maturity of an organisation. Provided, of course, a healthy rate of fluctuation is maintained, with equal opportunities for men and women and the employment of people with a disability.
In five consecutive waves dating from 1994 to 2003 the SAO has gradually modernised its technologies and created a universally used information system: it has put in place a modern work environment with the necessary tools at its disposal.
In the personnel area the SAO has built up a system of motivational tools designed to ensure the professional growth of its staff. The SAO has gradually introduced flexible working hours for all its employees, which has resulted both in more effective use of working time and in greater satisfaction among its employees, who are thus better able to balance their demanding and responsible jobs with their personal lives.
Throughout its existence the SAO has set great store by the systematic training of its workforce. The current system of employee training is a unified set of procedures, relationships, responsibilities and rules that form the basis for identifying training and development needs and for planning, implementing and assessing employee training and growth. These are processes that enable employees to gain the right qualifications for their work and to keep broadening and deepening their skills and abilities, thus improving the professionalism, quality and effectiveness of the services they provide. Employee training takes place in line with the organisation´s needs and supports the implementation of its vision and the attainment of its strategic objectives. The SAO also uses a number of other motivational tools designed mainly to make the Office an attractive employer and to provide employees with job security and good career prospects.
I would like to use the following charts to show how we have been successful in achieving the set goals.
The professional literature states that a healthy fluctuation rate is 5 - 7%. The SAO´s workforce fluctuation matches this optimal rate - I would be so bold as to say - in exemplary fashion.
The SAO is a modern government office of the 21st century and as such it offers its employees equal conditions and opportunities. The following chart covers this issue from the point of view of gender. Women are currently a slight majority in our workforce. Consequently, our Office can boast a balanced gender policy, including the numbers of men and women in management positions.
The SAO supports the full inclusion of disabled people in the work process, both by creating suitable working conditions and by buying goods and services from providers employing disabled persons.
The SAO strives to make the greatest possible use of information technologies. In this way we want to facilitate and support the work of our employees, both at head office and elsewhere. And that does not mean just their time spent at an audited organisation: it also applies to cases where it is possible to work from home - for example, during traffic calamities, when caring for a sick child or when floods occur.
The effective use of these technologies is dependent on employees´ practical and theoretical knowledge, including subsequent testing. We opted for the European concept ECDL for testing our employees´ IT skills. I won´t pretend that the testing was enthusiastically welcomed by our employees, but that makes me all the more glad that our employees´ success rate is very high. Unsuccessful attempts make up around 4% of all tests.
Effective financial management in the field of operating expenses is another major challenge.
This chart shows that the Office´s budget has shrunk by almost CZK 150 million in the last five years.
As employee pay is the biggest and simultaneously a constant part of expenditure, savings are achieved mainly by rigorous use of technology, cutting operating expenses while maintaining the quality of the working environment, caring for assets and cutting ordinary expenditure on consumer material.
The charts show examples of two areas in which expenditure was reduced. These are spending on the operation of mobile telephones and fuel consumption. Most of the savings were attained by offering up contractual relations to competition using online marketplaces or auctions.
We also achieved economies, for example, in telecommunications services, as the chart on the left shows, and in the operation of wireless modems
Other substantial cuts were made in spending on rent when certain territorial workplaces were moved from commercial leases to state or town-hall premises.
And now for the biggest saving of all: In 2010 we paid almost CZK 79 million per annum on the lease of the Office´s headquarters. We are about to sign contracts that will bring these costs down in the coming years to just under CZK 17 million per annum.
Thanks to these savings, in the coming year we will update - despite the expected lower budget - the Office´s equipment and technologies in all the necessary areas.
The role of internal audit cannot be overlooked when we are talking about financial management. Internal audit is a fundamental part of the system and working of any operation. I think I can declare with a clear conscience that internal audit in the Supreme Audit Office carries out independent, objective control and consulting work that is a major contribution to improvements in the working of the Office and the achievement of its goals. Sure, it is sometimes inconvenient for us in our day-to-day work to comply with the audit procedures that have been put in place, but I think we all realised long ago that effective control can only be a good thing. I am very pleased that as part of internal audit the SAO has successfully introduced effectiveness audit as well as checks of formal accuracy. Effectiveness audit focuses on three fundamental criteria: economy, efficiency and effectiveness. The results of internal audit then greatly help us answer two key questions: Are the right things being done? And are the right things being done right? As we all know, internal audit cannot ensure effective financial management on its own. The key requirement for a control system to function properly is that the results of internal audit have an impact.
To conclude, I would like to declare that we want to continue in the cost-cutting trend in the coming years until all possible savings have been achieved through efficient use of assets on the one hand and the vision of modern support for the entire Office on the other.
Thank you for your attention.