Supreme Chamber of Control

a NIK representative, a Technical Advisor from the NIK Regional Branch in Zielona Góra participated in the conference which marked the end of the cooperation in the framework of the AGIS programme, organized by the European Public Law Centre in Athens. AGIS is a cooperation framework programme which aims to assist the police and judiciary of the EU Member States, of candidate countries and third countries in matters connected with combating organized crime and corruption.

a delegation from the Danish National Audit Office participated in IT Self-assessment as the moderator. IT Self-assessment in the NIK is conducted with the use of the method developed by the EUROSAI IT Working Group

a delegation from the NIK participated in the meeting of the Contact Committee of the Heads of the EU SAIs in Stockholm. The main theme of the meeting was the SAIs´ role in the activities aimed to improve the accountability of EU funds, as well as the opinion of the Contact Committee on the European Commission´s Communique on the introduction of the integrated internal control framework. The next meeting of the Contact Committee of the Heads of the EU SAIs will be organized in December 2006 in Warsaw

a delegation from the Danish National Audit Office paid a working visit to the NIK and the Polish Ministry of Finance. The visit was dedicated to the ways of curbing tax frauds

the Parliamentary Commission of Vigilance of the Chamber of Deputies of the United States of Mexico invited the NIK President to participate in the International Forum of Supreme Audit Institutions. The NIK President delivered the lecture "Characteristics of the Supreme Chamber of Control of Poland – weak and strong points of the audit model, strategy and tools in the process of transformation and modernization of the audit institution, the NIK´s input in the management of public finances".

a delegation from the NIK participated in the IV EUROSAI – OLACEFS Seminar organized by the Auditor General of Peru in Lima on 17-18 November 2005. IV EUROSAI – OLACEFS Seminar was organized in connection with the 75th anniversary of the establishment of the office of the Auditor General of Peru. The themes of the Seminar were the following: 1) Audit of property and incomes of public representatives, procedures for preventing conflicts of interests; 2) Methodology to evaluate and measure the impact of the audit institutions´ audits on savings and good use of public resources.

Director of the NIK Regional Branch in Szczecin participated in the conference in Kliczków organized by regional courts of audit of Germany operating on the German lands bordering Poland.

a delegation from the NIK´s Budget and Finance Department participated in the meeting of the members of the EUROSAI Working Group on tax subsidies in Bonn. The aim of the meeting was to discuss and adopt organizational and methodological assumptions for carrying out audits. The NIK expressed its intention to participate in the Group´s work which will be focusing on the examination of the existence of and compliance with clear rules for preparing bills introducing tax subsidies (including calculations of costs and expected results), ways of reporting which would allow for a reliable evaluation of the results of tax subsidies introduced, and consideration of this data in the process of developing acts of law

the Heads of the Supreme Audit Institutions of the Visegrad Group, Austria and Slovenia met in Česky Krumlov. During the meeting, the results of the questionnaire on the composition of the Group, the Group´s nature, goals and tasks were presented. Meetings of the V-4+2 Group are an informative and consultative forum for the Presidents before Contact Committee (CC) meetings. The Group promotes bilateral and multilateral cooperation (e.g. parallel audits) and develops cooperation with EU candidate countries (the SAIs of Romania and Bulgaria). The next meeting of the Heads of the V-4+2 Group will be held in autumn 2006 in Visegrad

a delegation from the NIK´s Public Administration Department participated in the Working Group on Structural Funds in the Hague. In 2005, the works of the Group were concerned with parallel audits of the functioning of the system of reporting on irregularities established for the administration of particular Member States. In November 2005, the NIK became a member of so called the Core Group, which manages the works of the Working Group on Structural Funds II. The Group plans to develop a draft overall report by the end of May 2006. The meeting of the Core Group (including the NIK) dedicated to this matter will be organized on 26-27 April 2006 in London. On 19-20 June 2006, a meeting is to take place where the draft overall report on parallel audits will be discussed with all the members and observers of the Working Group. The Supreme Chamber of Control will be the host of the meeting. The works on the development of the overall report should be completed in July 2006.

a NIK representative participated in the meeting of the Liaison Officers of the Supreme Audit Institutions of the European Union and the European Court of Auditors. During the meeting, the Liaison Officers considered the documents that will be presented at the meeting of the Contact Committee of the Heads of the EU SAIs in December in Stockholm.

a delegation composed of NIK experts paid a visit to the Court of Audit of Austria. The themes of the visit were the following: Indicators and controlling as management instruments for SAIs; Legal basis of the activities of the Austrian SAI; Procedures and audit methodology in the Austrian SAI

a NIK representative from the Economy, Privatization and State Treasury Department participated in the first meeting of the international team which will conduct the peer review of the procedures of financial and performance audits in the National Audit Office of Denmark. The peer review will be carried out in February and March 2006 (30 January – 5 February; 27 February – 5 March; 27 March – 2 April). The final report on the peer review will be submitted to the management of the National Audit Office of Denmark in June 2006.

Mr Do Binh Duong, Auditor General of Vietnam paid a visit to the NIK. The topics discussed during the visit covered the legal framework of NIK activities, audit procedure and methodology, auditing standards, relations with the Sejm, as well as budget auditing and the activity of EUROSAI WGEA. The Vietnam delegation was made acquainted with tasks and activities of the NIK regional branches during the visit to the NIK Regional Branch in Krakow.

The NIK President paid a working visit to the National Audit Office of United Kingdom. The meeting was devoted to the questions of cooperation within the EU and bilateral collaboration in the field of audit of customs services, environmental protection and defence.
It has been agreed that the NIK will continue to make use of the know-how worked out by the NAO as far as the performance audit manual is concerned

Mr Javzmaa Lkhamsuren, Auditor General of Mongolia paid a short visit to the NIK. The topics discussed during the visit covered the legal framework of NIK activities, audit procedure and methodology, auditing standards, relations with the Sejm, as well as budget auditing, recruitment and selection of systems in the NIK and trainings. The Mongolian delegation was made acquainted with tasks and activities of the NIK regional branches during the visit to the NIK Regional Branch in Krakow. The Polish party had an opportunity to listen to the presentation by Mr D. Gankhuyag on the legal framework of the Mongolian State Audit Office activities, organizational structure and tasks. It was decided that the next event: Mongolian – Polish seminar on budget auditing and relationship with the Parliament is to be held in August 2006.(photo)

Annual meeting of representatives of Baltic and Nordic SAIs (Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Sweden) devoted to performance auditing. Performance auditing: audit planning (selection of audit subjects) and developing audit programmes and Performance auditing: Follow-up audits of the implementation of audit recommendations on efficiency, effectiveness and economy – legal framework and practice these were the main themes of the meeting. Planning is one of the basic elements of the whole audit process. Planning aims to create the environment allowing for focusing audit work on the most significant social aspects related to the state functioning. In their presentations all the participants stressed the significance of planning for the success of performance auditing, the meaning of appropriate risk analysis, of having the criteria rightly defined, and also of the potential added value. While planning audit tasks, we should bear in mind the role of the Supreme Audit Institution as an equivalent of market forces which are absent from the public sector. Audits should drive public sector players to seek effective, efficient and economical ways of spending public resources. Monitoring is the SAIs´ duty, required by the law. In many countries the task of monitoring is directly stated in regulations and Supreme Audit Institutions have to assign sufficient time for such work. Effective audits cause improvement in performance. At the end of the meeting, new developments in SAIs were presented. The next meeting is to be hold in Latvia in September 2006. (photo)

Visit of the Auditor General of Denmark, Mr Henrik Otbo. Mr Otbo and Mr Sekuła discussed plans for the 2006 peer review of the NIK to be done by the National Audit Office of Denmark, the European Commission´s "roadmap to the integrated internal control framework" and defence auditing cooperation. The Danish delegation also visited the NIK´s Regional Branch in Poznań.(photo)

Study visit on developing IT self-assessment in the NIK by Rigsrevisionen - National Audit Office of Denmark. Topics of the visit were: Organisation and structure of the NIK´s IT services,
IT tasks in the NIK Regional Branches, IT specialists, help-desk, trainings, IT Council, the NIK IT Strategy; IT systems: infrastructure and operation, budget, IT priority tasks, internal software development, external orders; Electronic System of Documents Management; Development of the software supporting audit: j-NIK, Auditor´s Assistant.

The NIK President paid a working visit to the Federal Court of Audit of Germany (BRH) in Bonn. The meeting was primarily devoted to the question of cooperation between the NIK and the German SAI in the EUROSAI Governing Board and in the framework of the Contact Committee of the Heads of the SAIs of the EU. The discussion also touched upon the question of the "Roadmap to an integrated internal control framework", as proposed by the European Commission. The two SAIs exchanged their views with regard to this proposal.

Mr Blagoja Iliewski, the Vice-President of the SAI of Macedonia paid a working visit to the NIK. The Macedonian delegation was acquainted with the scope of responsibilities and with works of the Environment, Agriculture and Spatial Management Department, of the Audit Strategy Department, including Training for Auditors and Professional Development Unit, of the Economy, State Treasury and Privatization Department, of the Science, Education and National Heritage Department, of the Budget and Finance Department and of the President´s Office, as well as of the NIK Regional Branch in Poznań.

Mr Jan Jasovsky, the President of the Supreme Audit Office of the Republic of Slovakia (NKU), paid a short official visit to Kraków. He was accompanied by his deputy, Vice-President Emil Kočiš. The Slovak delegation visited the NIK Regional Branch in Kraków, where they were made acquainted with audit activities of the Supreme Chamber of Control. The question of Polish-Slovak cooperation with regard to parallel audits and potential spheres of future cooperation were discussed. The Slovak party delivered a short presentation on the organization and division of tasks of their SAI as well as reported on the planned changes in the organizational structure and activities of the Supreme Audit Office of Slovakia.

At present, the NIK Regional Branch in Kraków and the NIK Regional Branch in Rzeszów are conducting two parallel audits: an audit of the functioning of national parks, sustainable utilization and renewal of natural resources (the NIK Regional Branch in Kraków and the Nature Protection Section of the Slovak SAI) and an audit of the implementation of the international agreement of 6 July 1995 between the Republic of Poland and the Republic of Slovakia on legal relations and cooperation on the Polish-Slovak border (NIK Regional Branches in Kraków and Rzeszów and NKU Branches from Banská Bystrica and Košice). The Presidents concluded that pronouncements on the results of these audits would be issued in the Polish, Slovakian and English language and signed respectively in the 4 quarter of 2005 and in the 1 quarter of 2006.

The NIK President visited the European Court of Auditors in Luxembourg. The aim of the visit was to present "Audit Quality Guidelines" whose co-author was the NIK. The Auditor General of Malta delivered a presentation on Quality Control and Quality Assurance, the President of the State Audit Office of Hungary presented Institutional Management, and the ECA reported on Audit Quality System.

During his visit to the ECA, the NIK President met Hubert Weber, the President of the ECA and Jacek Uczkiewicz, a Polish member of the ECA.

Bonn witnessed the VI EUROSAI Congress (for details see: www.eurosai-2005.de), devoted to state budget income auditing. The NIK was the rapporteur of III sub-theme: Audit approach and audit impact. The Congress appointed the NIK to organize the VII EUROSAI Congress, to be held in Kraków in 2008. As the EUROSAI WGEA Co-ordinator the NIK presented the review of their achievements at VI EUROSAI Congress in Bonn. The presentation covered an exhibition titled "Environment Protection in Kids Eyes", a poster session, an information booklet, publication of WGEA documents and report from 3 years' activity coordinated by the NIK

Meeting of the Liaison Officers of the Supreme Audit Institutions of the European Union countries and the European Court of Auditors took place in Cracow. Among the participants of the meeting there were representatives of the European Union candidate countries. The objective of the meeting was to discuss current matters of cooperation and preparations for the next annual meeting of the Contact Committee of the Presidents of the Supreme Audit Institutions of the European Union. Relations among the Contact Committee and organs and institutions of the European Union, the role of the Acting Chair and Administrative Secretariat, working languages, work organization, internal arrangements of the Contact Committee and finally, rules of the financing of the meetings from the European Union budget were discussed as well. The next meeting of the Contact Committee will take place in December 2005 in Sweden

The NIK President paid an official visit to the Office of the Auditor General of Norway. During the visit, the NIK President met Adam Jaroszyński, the Ambassador of the Republic of Poland to Norway. He also paid a short visit to the Norwegian Parliament. The meeting at the Office of the Auditor General was devoted mainly to audits of funds of the European Economic Area (EEA). Besides, the Norwegian SAI presented its recruitment and training procedures as well as materials on environment protection auditing

At the invitation of the Auditor General of Lithuania, Ms Rasa Budbergyte, the President of the Supreme Chamber of Control participated in the celebration of the 15th anniversary of the restoration of the National Audit Office of Lithuania. The event was organized in the National Philharmonic and it witnessed the presence of the highest authorities of Lithuania: President Valdas Adamkus, Prime Minister Algirdas Brazauskas, the Vice-President of the Lithuanian Parliament Česlovas Juršėnas and Artūras Skardžius, the President of the Parliamentary commission for State Audit. Other guests who arrived at the National Philharmonic included representatives from the Supreme Audit Institutions of Belarus, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Poland, Sweden, Ukraine and the United Kingdom. Ms Rasa Budbergyte accepted congratulations and wishes from the representatives of the state institutions and from former Auditors General of Lithuania.

The NIK, at the invitation issued by the NIK Director General, hosted a delegation from the State Audit Office of Hungary headed by Mr Pál Csapodi, the Secretary General of the Hungarian State Audit Office. The Hungarian delegation was made acquainted with the organization, structure and activities of the NIK, with the recruitment and training system and visited the NIK´s Training Centre in Goławice. The Polish party had an opportunity to listen to the presentation by the Hungarian State Audit Office on the experiences gained during the INCOSAI Congress which took place in October 2004 in Budapest and on the works connected with the implementation and utilization of the system of electronic circulation of document

The NIK hosted a delegation from the State Supreme Audit Institution of Albania headed by President Robert Çeku. The Albanian delegation was made acquainted with the history, organization and legal basis of the NIK, with its mission and vision, its audit methodology as well as with the state budget execution audit and assistance measures. President Çeku revealed his particular interest in the NIK´s experiences and activities with regard to corruption prevention and combat, utilization of electronic tools in audit processes, information on the process of the adjustment to the EU standards and activities undertaken and realized by the NIK in the field.

After consultations with the SIGMA Programme, the NIK offered that its experts would participate in workshops and trainings organized jointly for the auditors from the Albanian SAI whose main goal would be to share the NIK´s experiences in auditing of spheres which are particularly corruption prone.

The NIK President visited Stockholm to meet the President of National Audit Office of Sweden and the representative from the European Court of Auditors. At the meeting they discussed, among others, the idea of the next meeting of the Contact Committee of the Heads of the Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) of the EU to be held in Stockholm in December 2005. The participants in the meeting were delegations from the SAIs of Sweden and of Poland headed by Presidents Eva Lindström i Mirosław Sekuła as well as Director Chris Kok from the European Court of Auditors. The meeting was initiated by the SAI of Sweden.

One of the auditors from the NIK Department of Environment, Agriculture and Spatial Management accompanied the representatives from the European Court of Auditors in the audit of the Phare PL 0006.09 project. The audit took place at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Agency for Restructuring and Modernization of Agriculture (ARiMR), the Institute for Agriculture and Food Economics and the Lower Silesian Agricultural Counseling Centre in Wrocław (ODR). It covered checking of financial and accounting documentation confirming purchases of goods and services with the financial resources of the Polish party.

The President of the NIK, hosted by Mr Sergiey V. Stiepashin, the President of the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation, participated in the celebration of the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the Russian Accounts Chamber. Other witnesses of the celebration included representatives from the Supreme Audit Institutions of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, France, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Lithuania, Mongolia, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Tajikistan, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom.

The Heads of the Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) of the Visegrad Group (Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary) participated in a meeting in Štrbskie Pleso in Slovakia. The Presidents of the Courts of Audit of Slovenia and Austria were also invited to take part in the meeting. The representatives from the Visegard Group and Slovenia exchanged their experiences in the cooperation with the European Court of Auditors after accession to the European Union, and the Austrian Court of Audit shared its experiences in the field. The participants also discussed the results of some parallel audits as well as subjects of parallel audits that might be carried out in the future by some SAIs of the Visegard Group. Moreover, the participants in the meeting devoted some time to discuss the question of cooperation with and assistance for the countries applying for the membership in the Union (Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia and Turkey). The next assembly of the Visegard Group in the same composition is scheduled for autumn 2005 to be held in the vicinities of Prague.

Financial resources for training,

The defence audit will be continued and expanded, in particular through a joint audit of military exercises,