Public relations of the Supreme Audit Office - The Director of the Communication Department, the SAO, Mr Jaroslav Broža
Seminar - 20th Anniversary of the SAO, Senate of the Parliament of the CR, 25.7.2013
Mr Zeman, President of the Czech Republic,
Mr Štěch, President of the Senate,
Mr Kala, President of the Supreme Audit Office
Ms Horníková, Vice-President of the Supreme Audit Office
Members of the Office,
Esteemed foreign guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,
the vision of the Supreme Audit Office comprises three sentences:
- We want to be a respected institution that carries out independent audit professionally.
- The results of our work must be exact and objective; we will be able to document and prove any findings.
- We want to promote best practice in the management of public finances and property.
I dare say that the Supreme Audit Office is implementing its vision.
I have to thank those here who submitted the Act on the SAO, as they gave the Office good foundations. I am obliged to mention the first president of the SAO, Doctor Lubomír Voleník, who in the early days instilled in the Office a certain spirit that still reigns today. I want to thank the former and current members of the College of the Supreme Audit Office who have been and are the guarantors of our institution´s independence. I also have to express my appreciation for our auditors and other employees, as they help us realise our vision.
It is a great honour for me to help present the results of the excellent work done by our auditors.
The Supreme Audit Office communicates with the public at three levels.
First and foremost we communicate with their elected representatives: with the Senate, the Chamber of Deputies and the government.
Second, we communicate with the unelected representatives of the public, namely the media.
And, last but not least, we communicate directly with the public.
The government discusses all audit conclusions, and does so in the presence of the SAO president. It adopts a resolution on each audit conclusion. In more than eighty per cent of cases, in these resolutions the government tasks the appropriate minister to adopt and implement specific remedial measures.
In the parliament we cooperate with both its chambers. In the Senate we regularly discuss our annual report, both in the Committee on National Economy, Agriculture and Transport and in the plenum. In several cases our audit conclusions have been debated in the Senate.
To the Chamber of Deputies we submit our annual report, our opinion on the draft state closing account, our opinion on the implementation of the state budget and, of course, audit conclusions. The Committee on Budgetary Control is our principal partner in the Chamber of Deputies. The best practice that has evolved in the Czech Republic is as follows. The government discusses our audit conclusions. In most cases it adopts remedial measures in response to them. After a time they are discussed by the Committee on Budgetary Control. The Committee on Budgetary Control receives, besides our audit findings referred to in the audit conclusion, a description of the remedial measures adopted by the government; if appropriate it may verify their practical application. In addition, it may check that they are being implemented or may demand further remedial measures from the audited entities. I believe that this best practice has proven effective during the existence of the Committee on Budgetary Control and I trust that it will continue successfully.
Relative to the media the Supreme Audit Office pursues an open and cooperative approach. But it does so in the knowledge of its obligation to uphold the confidentiality and safeguard the legitimate interests of the audited entities. Once the audit conclusions have undergone the necessary linguistic and graphic modifications after approval, we send them to the government and both chambers of the parliament. Then we post them on our web site and send them to media organisations.
The way best practice has evolved, we always publish audit conclusions early on Monday morning. That means that during the day the media can ask for statements from the member of the Office who led the given audit.
The president of the Office issues statements relating to general, cross-cutting and systemic matters. He is often invited onto key programmes and publishes articles in eminent periodicals.
We communicate directly with the public in several ways. Firstly, by publishing our audit outputs, i.e. conclusions. Four times a year we publish the Bulletin, containing all approved audit conclusions, the annual report and the audit plan, including any changes and additions.
As I mentioned earlier, we also post these documents online. Citizens interested in learning about specific audit findings thus have various paths open to them.
Anyone contacting us in writing, by telephone or in person, is treated with due care and attention.
Our Office has two attributes: Supreme and Audit. That is reflected in the number of public submissions we receive. There are several hundred every year. Whenever a citizen has no recourse to assistance, understanding or advice, he turns to us. And we hear him out and, if at all possible, advise. Every grandmother who was wrongly billed for her telephone, every citizen who has got into trouble with the authorities, every person who has information about uneconomical use of public funds will receive an answer, with explanations, from us.
When the problem concerns our audit function or our audit powers, we thank the person, process the submission and either action it in an on-going audit or place it in our database of actionable submissions. When the problem is not covered by our audit powers, we try to give advice or explanations or provide contact details. We refer the person to the competent institution, suggest a possible way to resolve the problem, and track down and supply a specific contact, be that the nearest citizen´s advice bureau or a department of the authority in question.
Information requests lodged under the act on free access to information are a specific form of communication. Here we proceed strictly according to the law. We provide the information requested, always complying with the legal time limits. In many cases we go beyond what the law demands: we contact the person who lodged the request, explain the problem and, if necessary, provide additional information beyond that originally requested.
Contact with the expert public and students is another specific form of communication. We cooperate with academic circles; some eminent specialists work with us to develop our methods and our audit tools; and some of our employees and representatives lecture at universities.
Every year there are several students who write diploma works on the subject of the Supreme Audit Office. We work with the students who contact us, providing them with consultation and the necessary materials. Last year, after handing in her defence of her diploma work one of these students took part in and won a recruitment competition. Now she is an auditor of the Supreme Audit Office.
According to the media analyses and comparisons we have conducted recently it would seem that we have achieved the maximum possible exposure in the Czech media. Even so, we constantly try to improve the services we provide and find new ways to inform the public about the results of our work.
I am deeply convinced that the Supreme Audit Office is by its essence a highly conservative institution. The SAO should be a paragon of expertise and probity, and I am convinced that in the vast majority of cases it is.
Our biggest challenge for the future is thus to maintain our existing standards.
I am confident that we are respected institution that carries out independent audit professionally.
I am convinced that the results of our work are precise and objective and that we can document and prove any findings.
I hope that we are promoting best practice in the management of public finances and property.
And, to conclude, I would like to express my faith that in twenty years´ time, when our successors remember us, we will meet their standards and expectations in the same way as our predecessors met ours.
Thank you for your attention.