International cooperation of the Supreme Audit Office - The Director of the International Relations Department, the SAO, Ms Sylva Müllerová
Seminar - 20th Anniversary of the SAO, Senate of the Parliament of the CR, 25.7.2013
Mr President of the Senate of the Parliament,
Mr President,
Mrs Vice-president,
esteemed foreign guests,
ladies and gentlemen,
it is a great honour for me to stand before you here and say a few words on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the founding of the Supreme Audit Office on the subject of the Office´s international activities.
Compared to some other European supreme audit institutions the Supreme Audit Office is relatively young. For example, next year the Bundesrechnungshof in Germany will celebrate its 300th birthday, the Austrian Court of Audit has existed for more than 250 years and Poland´s supreme audit institution was founded over 90 years ago. Nevertheless, the SAO can boast a number of successes in the field of international cooperation.
Ever since the Office was founded, international relations and contacts have been very important, because who else could the Supreme Audit Office, a new independent organisation, gain experience from if not its foreign counterparts that have operated for many years on a similar principle and where democratic and independent control already has a long tradition.
At the time of the Office´s founding, international activities mainly took the form of establishing contacts with supreme audit institutions abroad, creating an awareness of the Office´s work in other countries and gradually taking part in the work of international organisations, mainly INTOSAI, which is the International organisation of supreme audit institutions, and its European "daughter" EUROSAI.
It would certainly be wrong, however, to say that this amounted to nothing more than timid testing of the water, as the Supreme Audit Office organised a EUROSAI congress as early as in 1996; one upshot of that is the fact that the SAO president was the vice-president of the EUROSAI governing board from 1993 to 1996 and chaired the board until the following congress in 1999.
The year 2002 was an important milestone in international cooperation, as it marked the beginning of a 14-month twinning project designed to improve external financial audit in the SAO to the standard of the supreme audit institutions of European Union member states. To achieve this aim, the project had to focus on improving the expertise of the Supreme Audit Office´s employees.
Pilot financial and performance audits supported by German and British experts were the most important aspects of this project. Another part of the project was the creation of manuals for audit work.
The Bundesrechnungshof was the principal twinning partner; additional assistance was provided via short-term experts; other partners who provided significant support during the project included the European Court of Auditors and the Hesse Court of Auditors. Under an agreement between the Bundesrechnungshof and the SAO, the UK National Audit Office was invited to take part, bringing to the project its expertise in financial audit and training.
And with us today is Mr Zentner, who acted as pre-accession advisor on the project.
In 2003 the SAO organised another important event, namely a meeting of the Contact Committee of representatives of the supreme audit institutions of the European Union. For the first time, this meeting brought together representatives of the supreme audit institutions of the European Union and their counterparts from the acceding countries. Principles for greater cooperation between the European Court of Auditors and supreme audit institutions were agreed at this meeting, among other things.
Other international events organised by the SAO and designed to facilitate the exchange of experiences and audit procedures and methods include a wide variety of seminars, some of which were held under the auspices of EUROSAI or the Contact Committee, such as the seminars Audit of Social Security Systems in 2008, Experiences with the Implementation and Development of Performance Audit from 2009, the Common Agricultural Policy seminar held the following year, the Fight Against Corruption seminar from 2011, or last year´s seminars on the subjects of Quality of Audit and Use of Software Tools in Audit.
Joint audits by the SAO and one or more supreme audit institutions from other countries are an interesting and useful tool for learning about and assimilating new audit approaches. Since it was founded, the Supreme Audit Office has taken part in 22 joint audits, which is clear evidence of its interest in this form of cooperation and its success. Audit findings made and verified by both sides can be used for initiatives designed to improve the system of funding as a whole in the countries in question or to change the rules or set-up of this system and, last but not least, to improve the quality of work.
In addition, auditors learn the details about the performance of audit in another country and can take away a lot of useful information and approaches. Naturally, most of these audits took place with partner institutions in neighbouring countries, where their relative proximity and familiarity made the performance of such audit easier and, in many cases, possible at all.
Most joint audits were carried out with the Supreme Audit Office of Slovakia, where the absence of a language barrier and the traditional close ties facilitate this kind of cooperation. Many joint audits were also undertaken with our foreign guests attending this seminar, namely the supreme audit institutions of Poland, Germany, Austria, Slovenia and Hungary. These audits covered topics such as taxes, both value added tax and excises, audits targeting environmental issues such as air quality, water, the transport of hazardous waste or national parks; others concerned issues such as motorway construction. Some joint audits were bilateral, other were trilateral or multilateral.
A pilot joint audit of the SAO and the European Court of Auditors targeting the Rural Development Programme was an interesting and essentially unique project.
That this form of cooperation has a future and is beneficial for everyone involved is borne out by the fact that two joint audits have been commenced this year: one with the supreme audit institution of Poland focusing on cross-border cooperation between the two countries and another with the supreme audit institution of Switzerland concerning the Swiss-Czech Cooperation Programme.
Another type of cooperation and active engagement by the Supreme Audit Office is its membership of a wide variety of working groups of European and international audit institutions. The SAO is currently a member of EUROSAI and INTOSAI working groups on environmental auditing, information technology, the fight against corruption and money laundering and a subcommittee for financial audit guidelines.
At European Union level, the SAO is involved in the work of the groups on the structural funds and value added tax, in networks of experts on agriculture, in the group for reports on the European Union´s financial management and in groups for audit work or cooperation with statistical authorities.
The fact that SAO representatives were chosen to sit on the Audit Board of EUROCONTROL, the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation, from 2008 to 2011 is further recognition of the quality of the SAO´s work.
As part of international cooperation the Supreme Audit Office also took on the role of a leader of a project entitled Sustainable Energy. The project was part of Goal 1 of the work plan of the INTOSAI working group on environmental auditing, which consisted in expanding the guidance materials available to SAIs. The outcome of the Sustainable Energy project is a material used as a guideline for the performance of audit in the field of renewable energy sources; the guidance material can be used by audit institutions all over the world. The handbook was the product of the joint efforts of the Supreme Audit Office´s project team, environment and energy experts, and foreign-based project teams. The results were presented to the INTOSAI Congress and were highly acclaimed by colleagues from many different countries.
At present the SAO has become the leader of a project to draw up further EUROSAI handbooks targeting the issue of energy savings, which will be based on the SAO´s audit work.
International cooperation is also used for the training of auditors and other SAO staff. A new strategic plan for 2011-2017 was adopted at the EUROSAI Congress in 2011. The new strategic plan defines four strategic goals for the coming period:
- Capacity building
- Professional standards
- Knowledge sharing
- Governance and communication
In June 2011 the SAO was appointed to the chair of Strategic Goal 3: Knowledge Sharing, which is designed to encourage cooperation and the sharing of experiences between members of EUROSAI, with INTOSAI and with external partners.
The key to success in this area is EUROSAI members´ openness, their willingness to share their knowledge and experiences with others and, above all, their desire to work together.
EUROSAI should improve access to the results of work produced by supreme audit institutions and by EUROSAI and INTOSAI working groups as a source of information during day-to-day work.
The SAO will chair Goal 3 for at least three years; it chose representatives of the supreme audit institutions of Austria, Belgium, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland and Ukraine to join the team.
And what is the future of international cooperation? That depends mainly on the focus of specific audits and the resulting requirements, as audit is both the axis and the fulcrum of the Office´s work. As I have already indicated, the path may be one of joint audits with partner organisations on current topics of common interest; the SAO´s cooperation within working groups will undoubtedly be developed; and, last but not least, emphasis will be placed on training and the exchange of knowledge and experiences.
To conclude, I would like to mention the motto of INTOSAI: Experientia mutua omnibus prodest, or Mutual experience benefits all. This motto also expresses the purpose of international cooperation.
Thank you for your attention.