Speech of the General Director of the Court of Auditors of Austria, Mr Günther Schlicker
Seminar - 20th Anniversary of the SAO, Senate of the Parliament of the CR, 25.7.2013
Dear President of the Czech Republic Mr Zeman,
Dear President of the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic, Mr Stech,
Dear President of the Supreme Audit Institution of the Czech Republic, Mr Kala,
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is a pleasure to be here in Prague on occasion of the 20th Anniversary of the Supreme Audit Office. My name is Günther Schlicker, I am Director General at the Austrian Court of Audit and I would like to first convey the best wishes and cordial congratulations to this anniversary on behalf of Dr Moser, the President of the Austrian Court of Audit and Secretary General of INTOSAI, the International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions.
Dr Moser cordially regrets not being able to participate personally due to parliamentary obligations, especially considering the fact of the long-standing and trusting cooperation between our two Supreme Audit Organisations and sends his best wishes for the 20th Anniversary of the Supreme Audit Office of the Czech Republic.
Cooperation with the Austrian Court of Audit and INTOSAI
I would now like to cover the intention of this Expert Seminar, and span the gamut from the cooperation of the Supreme Audit Office of the Czech Republic and the Austrian Court of Audit our two institutions in the past to topics of mutual interest for Supreme Audit Institutions in the near future.
Soon after the foundation of the NKU in 1993 our two institutions established close cooperation - already in November 1993 the first exchange of experiences was dedicated to "Internal Control. As a result in the past 20 years there were two bilateral meetings of our Presidents (for instance in 1994 and in 2006) where topics like legal basis, human resources, organisation, communication with the parliament, quality assurance, audit of environment, municipalities, EU-funds etc were discussed. Additionally there were a lot of possibilities for close cooperation on multilateral level on occasion of meetings and seminars on topics like environmental auditing (1995), public finances (1995), performance audit (2004), public aids and subsidies (2006), EU-funds (2008), social security systems (2008), Value for Money (2009), Common Agricultural Policy (2010), application of software tools in the audit (2012) etc. Furthermore experiences on topics like human resources, asset-related budgeting, intelligent traffic systems, annual financial statement, cross border cooperation, road-construction and maintenance etc. were exchanged in writing.
This is not a complete listing of issues, but gives you an insight of the topics of interest for both parties and the long lasting cooperation.
Along our intensive cooperation, the ACA had also the pleasure to offer an internship to two members of the Czech SAI to offer a better insight in Human Resources Department at the Austrian Court of Audit in 1995.
Our two institutions cooperated also at coordinated audit level: In 2005 our two institutions issued a report on the "Implementation of tasks related to environmental projects and measures in the Thaya River Basin. In collaboration with other SAIs our two institutions also worked closely together in audit on:
- State property and financial resources provided for administrations of national parks and preserved territories (2006);
- Financial means expended on air quality protection (2007);
- Performance of the Structural Funds programmes of the EU in the area of employment and/or the environment (2007/2008) and
- Audit of the Management and Control Systems of the EU Structural Funds (2008).
There was not only bilateral and multilateral exchange of experiences and audits at the level of our two audit institutions, in fact there was also a bilateral meeting of representatives of the Czech Parliament, notably a delegation of the Constitutional and Legal Committee of the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of Czech Republic with President Dr Moser at the premises of the Austrian Court of Audit in April 2012. At this meeting the ACAs mandate as well as details of audit competences in the Laender, the municipalities and public sector enterprises were presented.
The SAI of the Czech Republic is an active player and an essential partner in the European as well as the international external public auditing community. At present the NKU focuses its international activities at the EUROSAI and INTOSAI level on Knowledge Sharing and Knowledge Services, Professional Standards, Environmental Auditing and the Fight Against Corruption and Money Laundering.
Our two SAIs experience also a special kind of close cooperation: it is the cooperation within the SAIs of the Visegrad countries, Austria and Slovenia (the so called "V 4+2). At this levels our Presidents discuss current topics, often in an EU-context and develop ideas and approaches.
Topics of current and future activities of supreme audit institutions
One of the topics, the Presidents of the V 4+2 meeting in 2012 in Hungary discussed, were the remaining questions concerning the role of the external public auditing as to the developments within European Union and the European Stabilisation Instruments such as the ESM.
The recently adopted and envisaged instruments for fiscal and budgetary governance of the European Union (EU) - such as the European Semester and the legislative packages of the Six Pack and Two Pack - have various implications. On the one hand, competences of the EU Member States are shifted to the EU level, on the other hand, this budgetary restructuring has also impacts on the role and tasks of national parliaments. This, in particular, raises questions concerning the future tasks of independent external public audit institutions - the audit institutions of the EU Member States and the European Court of Auditors.
For clarification, I would like to give you a small outline on the outstanding issues when implementing this new EU Financial Regulation No 966/2012 that were and still are under discussion:
- Will there be new tasks and responsibilities for national SAIs and will the national SAIs independence be struck?
- Whats about the control prerogative of national parliaments?
- Will there be a need of adjustment of the cooperation with the ECA (concerning factual requirements for DAS (=Statement of Assurance) preparation) and/or additional concrete tasks?
The Presidents of the Visegrad 4+2 countries discussed in 2012 this issue and decided to raise awareness on this topic at the Contact Committee - a forum of the Presidents of the Supreme Audit Institutions of the EU Members and the European Court of Audit.
Following this discussion in the Contact Committee it decided to establish a Task Force to deal with
- recent developments in the EU concerning the establishment of a new economic, fiscal and financial architecture;
- prerequisites for effective fulfilment of these tasks; and
- requirements for independence, effectiveness and credibility of SAIs
in order to contribute most effectively to future legislative processes, possibly in a consultative way, building on the strengths and experience of the Contact Committee and its member organisations.
The current work on EU level in this regard is a clear proof for the impact of our cooperation on European level, which contributes to the strengthening of external government audit.
Conclusion
The joint efforts and the highlighting of one possible future development illustrated above are valuable examples of the efforts of the NKU to map out its efforts in benefit of an even more effective government auditing. The Austrian Court of Audit is very grateful for the long lasting partnership and the valuable contribution of the NKU to the work of INTOSAI.
In conclusion I would like to seize this opportunity to express the Supreme Audit Office of the Czech Republic once again the ACAs and its Presidents Dr Mosers most heartfelt congratulations on occasion of its 20th Anniversary of the Supreme Audit Office of the Czech Republic.