Speech of the President of the Supreme Audit Office of Poland, Mr Jacek Jezierski
Seminar - 20th Anniversary of the SAO, Senate of the Parliament of the CR, 25.7.2013
Dear Mr President of the Senate of the Czech Republic,
Dear Mr President of the Supreme Audit Office of the Czech Republic, Dear Ms Vice-President of the Supreme Audit Office of the Czech Republic,
Dear Presidents of SAIs,
Dear Auditors General,
Dear Guests,
Dear Colleagues,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I would like to start by thanking the President of the Supreme Audit Office of the Czech Republic for giving me this opportunity to speak on such a special occasion to such a distinguished audience. It is an honour for me to be here today in Prague to celebrate with you the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the Supreme Audit Office of the Czech Republic. Allow me to convey to you, Miloslav, and to all the colleagues of the NKU my most sincere congratulations on this distinctive occasion.
I am very happy to be here today. Our nations are close to each other not only in geographical terms. We share many historical experiences, a few years ago we joined the European Union together in 2004. And even our languages are similar.
Our countries cooperate also on the level of Supreme Audit Institutions. We have been colleagues for years. NKU is one of our oldest and most significant partners in international cooperation: within EUROSAI and INTOSAI, regionally within the network of SAI Heads of the Vysegrad Group, and also bilaterally. For example quite recently, as it has been already mentioned by Sylva Mullerova, we have launched a parallel audit of one of the cross-border projects in the Olomouc and Opole regions on both sides of the border. And it will be not the first parallel audit done together. We have cooperated for most of that 20-year-period since the establishment of the NKU. I am very pleased to say this today that the Czech SAI has been a most valuable participant of our international framework of SAIs for years. Always very active and interested to contribute to international exchange, always professional, open and reliable. We appreciate our contacts and common work very highly and look forward to its continuation.
Institutions like ours, Supreme Audit Institutions, SAIs, tend to cooperate closely all over the world, as their mission is quite unique. We are there to watch the executive, the governments implementing their mission for the sake of the state and its citizens. In that context - of SAIs mission to be a reliable source of information, I would like to say a few words about three aspects of our functioning: that of our independence, that of relevance and that of communication.
The governments and parliaments are all about politics. And politics is a game. In that game it is the well-being of states and of people that is at the stake. To report the game in a reliable manner to the public and to the parliament, we, SAIs, may not be part of that game. We should be as free from political influence and pressure as possible. That is why in both our countries, and in many other countries in Europe and rest of the world, SAIs are established by the Constitution and SAI Presidents are appointed for a fixed term. That is, to give you another example, why in Poland we ourselves draft our budget, to be independent of the Minister of Finance, who is our auditee, and why our audit staff have a status of nominated public servants. I suppose the arrangement in the Czech Republic is very similar.
We value our independence highly, as it provides us with the right environment for our job. The Supreme Audit Institutions can accomplish their tasks objectively and effectively only if they are independent of the audited entity and are protected against political influence.
The importance of the issue is commonly recognized in our INTOSAI community, INTOSAI - the International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions. And 1 year and a half ago, at the end of December 2011, we were delighted to see that also the United Nations recognised the importance of the independence of supreme audit institutions and adopted a resolution promoting the independence of supreme audit institutions, as a necessary condition of the democratic order.
In that context, I would like to stress that we must also remember that in many countries of the world, audit institutions are not independent sufficiently to fulfil their mission. Thus, SAIs should help one another and promote assistance to SAIs which encounter difficulties while fulfilling their mandate, and in this way to promote democracy, which in the long-term is in the interest of all of us.
Independence allows us then to produce reliable reports, containing independent, full, true picture of what is going on in our states. But what then? What should happen then with that information? Who needs is? For whom do we work?
My answer is: for the public. And here comes the issue of relevance. I have worked for the Polish NIK for 20 years. Many times I had an impression that although reports produced by NIK do not have the impact we would like for them to have. They were wise and reliable and developed in a most professional manner, but somehow failed to impress our stakeholders. We knew why: they referred to things that happened a few years before, they reported things in a lengthy and detailed manner, usually in a difficult, professional language, and sometimes it seemed that their subject was an area of little or even no interest to anybody. Over a few years recently we have decided to change our approach. We reformed our planning and communication policies.
For the planning we have decided to be more relevant: to tackle current issues, as we want to influence the way the state is managed, and not to be historians. We have also for the first time ever asked the public about the areas that are particularly important to them and that NIK should in their opinion audit. We have also centralised the planning process in our institution. It does not mean that now we do every audit the public would like us to audit, however we more carefully listen to them, and try to provide answers to questions arising in the public debate around us. After all, it is the public, the citizens, who need our information to take informed decisions. And here we come to the issue of communication.
We can reach the public in two ways: either via their representatives in the Parliament, or via the media. That is why our reports for the Parliament have to be full but reader-friendly at the same time, modern in the form. MPs in all countries are busy people with not much time for reading unfortunately. We have to find ways to get their attention. We live in the time of a revolution in the information.
Thanks to the media, TV, internet, radio, newspapers, we can and we also in my opinion should convey our message directly to the citizens. This is why we in Polish NIK give so much attention to our media policy. We want to be there, in the media, not because we love the media so much, but because we think at this time there is no other way to get through with our reports, our findings and recommendations. 20 or 30 years ago information offered by SAIs was sought and wanted by MPs and journalists. Now we have to compete with all this buzz around to be audible. Why is it us that should be audible? Because in that information buzz we offer information collected, analysed and synthesised in line with professional standards, based on evidence, we do not provide speculations or gossips. This is why we should take care to be present in the media, to be there on the internet in a user-friendly manner, in the form that can be grasped by the public. To contribute with our quality information to the quality of the public life in our countries, and in the long run to the better state.
Today, we celebrate the 20th anniversary of foundation of the Supreme Audit Office of the Czech Republic with a true belief that there is an inseparable connection between the activities of a state audit institution and sound management of a democratic country. Our work should provide citizens with more confidence in the state.
I wish you, Mr President of the Supreme Audit Office of the Czech Republic, and all the colleagues from the SAI of the Czech Republic, enthusiasm in your everyday routine as auditors, perseverance in fulfilling your objectives for the sake of the well-being of Czech people.
Thank you. Dekuji vam.