Representatives of the European Court of Auditors at the SAO
PRESS RELEASE – September 29, 2014
On September 25, 2014, a delegation from the European Court of Auditors (ECA) led by Mr. Phil Wynn Owen, the ECA Member from the United Kingdom, visited the Supreme Audit Office (SAO). The visit was organized in connection with the performance audit that had been carried out by the ECA and focused on errors in public ordering in the area of Cohesion Policy. The audit was carried out in several EU Member States.
President of the SAO Miloslav Kala welcomed ECA Member Mr. Phil Wynn Owen and they discussed audits and activities of the SAO, which were related to public ordering – for example the recent joint auditing operation performed together with the German supreme audit institution Bundesrechnungshof, which focused on building constructions and anti-corruption prevention, and the recent conference organised at the SAO. Among discussion themes were also conflicts of interests, effective ways of utilisation of data from public administration information systems, and comparisons of costs of individual products and works in the Czech Republic with foreign countries.
During the meeting, representatives of the SAO and ECA auditors, who had performed the above mentioned audit, discussed their experience from auditing operations in the area of public ordering, namely issues related to most frequent errors and their reasons (with institutions as well as at the operational levels). ECA auditors wanted to know whether public ordering problems are analysed at the national level, whether appropriate corrective measurements are adopted, and what results come from implemented measurements. The audit report will be published in the half of 2015.
International Relations Department
Supreme Audit Office