The main adoption problem in Poland is lengthiness of proceedings caused e.g. by: unregulated legal status of the kids. An absolute majority of the kids at children’s homes have both parents, whom the court did not take back the right to care. The average duration of the adoption proceedings is two and a half years but if it is essential to deprive the biological parents of parental power the proceedings take even up to eight years. As a consequence, there may be a pupil instead of an infant waiting for the adoption family. Some children’s homes, not to allow this, break the law and register children at the adoption centres even before their legal status is regulated.

Care and education centres (children’s homes) as well as rehabilitation centres (education centres) are overcrowded. Apart from the space-related problems there are some irregularities in referring children to those institutions. The audit showed that there is an informal agreement between some Courts of Protection and Poviat Centres for Family Support. Some courts, passing judgements, intentionally do not decide what type of institution the child should go to. As a consequence, the final decision is taken independently by child care centres’ employees who first of all consider the capacity of poviats. It happens that children’s homes admit underage criminals who should be transferred to a typical rehabilitation centre. It negatively affects other children. Only 3 out of 28 audited institutions did not report any acts of vandalism, aggression or  violence requiring the police intervention. At the same time sluggishness of the courts in moving perpetrators of such incidents to relevant institutions makes the kids think they can go unpunished.

A great majority of audited institutions responsible for child care did not have full knowledge of the children staying there. In all child care centres huge gaps in the files were identified. The institutions whose mission is to solve social problems do not cooperate with one another. The lack of information flow or willingness to cooperate make the complicated position of the kids even more difficult. On the other hand, the auditees reported enormous difficulties in cooperation with the courts. According to them, the courts conduct the children’s legal proceedings lazily, provide the files unwillingly, often do not communicate the dates of trials, and even fail to send the files related to adoption. This is e.g. what happens in case of adoption centres, which the courts do not recognise as a party to the proceedings.

On 1 January (already after the audit finished) a new Foster Care Act came into force. It is to enhance the state care of the children and families in need.

The meeting was attended by representatives from the SAIs of fourteen countries: Austria, Belgium, Bangladesh, Brazil, Chile, France, Georgia, Hungary, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Oman, Romania, Russia, and South Africa, as well as representatives of two organisations that have been cooperating with the Subcommittee: the Institute of Internal Auditors (The IIA) and the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO).  

The Subcommittee was established in 1983. Its main task is to promote guidelines on good governance, referred to as INTOSAI GOVs, among public sector managers. It gathers 27 members from all parts of the world. For the years 2010-2013, the Subcommittee has five tasks to implement: (1) to work out examples of internal control measures for all internal control objectives and all control components; (2) to actively promote the INTOSAI GOVs; (3) to work on the integration of the internal control concept and risk management; (4) to elaborate a paper concerning reporting on internal control; and (5) to develop the e-platform as a tool for supporting Subcommittee’s work and a source of information on internal control. At the meeting, the coordinators of individual tasks presented the progress of their implementation. 

In order to accomplish tasks 3 and 4, the Subcommittee has been developing two surveys: on risk management and on reporting on internal control in the public sector, whose drafts were discussed at the meeting. Their final versions will be distributed among INTOSAI members later this year. On the basis of the results of these surveys, reports will be elaborated by May 2013, which will later be used to update the existing guidelines in the areas.

Additionally, on the first day of the meeting, the representatives of the SAIs of Austria and Poland presented their good practices in internal control, while the participants from the SAIs of Bangladesh, Chile, France and the Russian Federation shared their national experience in implementing internal control in the public sector. Another part of the meeting was dedicated to risk management, during which the representatives of The IIA, Belgium and Romania presented their views. On the second day of the meeting, a representative of COSO discussed the latest changes proposed to the Internal Control - Integrated Framework, and the participants from the SAIs of Lithuania and South Africa referred their experience in internal control reporting.

Each country has its own, unique experiences related to disasters. Poles talked about the 1997 millennium flood. Ukranians shared their experiences from the catastrophe of Chernobyl. Italians mentioned earthquakes that torment their country. The participants of the meeting kept repeating that disasters and catastrophes know no borders or boundaries. A flood from Romania affects Ukraine and vice versa. Many of those events have an international range, therefore, assistance and prevention measures should also act as such. Hence the idea, of not only sharing the experience but also jointly auditing the use of funds employed in the event of a crisis. Participants of the conference also agreed that it is better to spend money on disaster prevention than on dealing with its consequences.

The session was attended by the Polish state and local administration officials Deputy Minister of the Regional Development Adam Zdziebło stated that while managing large funds the role of an independent and professional audit institution cannot be overestimated. The Vice-President of Wrocław Wojciech Adamski noted that from an auditing body he expects also constructive criticism. - I would like the results of an audit not only to identify errors and irregularities, but eventually to lead to an actual and real improvement in the functioning of a specific segment of the state organism - he postulated. The Chair of the Ukrainian delegation Mariya Shulezhko indicated clearly the most important aspect of an audit understood as such. - Depending on how we will prepare ourselves to fight increasingly emerging catastrophes and disasters, is the number of people we will be able to save.

The Task Force, chaired by the Accounting Chamber of Ukraine, comprises the SAIs from 11 countries: (Armenia, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Russia, Hungary) and the European Court of Auditors. In addition Norway, Slovakia and Italy, have the observer status. The meeting in Wrocław concluded by signing a common position on the International Audit of Funds Allocated to Catastrophes and Disasters.

The assessment of the NIK cannot be associated with political views. Regardless their political stand, wether it is the left, the centre or the right, respondents' evaluations were similar (respectively  53, 53, 52%). Other public institutions have noted considerable decrease in positive evaluations in recent years. The Polish Constitutional Tribunal (Trybunał Konstytucyjny) is positively evaluated by 43% of Poles (5% less than in March 2009), the Polish Courts receives positive reviews from 32% of respondents (8% less than is 2009). Also there has been a decrease of favourable opinions of the Polish Prosecution – from 38% in March 2009 to 32% as present. Poles' evaluation of the Congress has been very critical. Only 23% of Poles say that the Congress works well. 61% of respondents evaluate the work of the Congress poorly.

Poles' most highly regarded are traditionally: firemen, police, the military and the Catholic Church. Large percentage of positive evaluations 60% got the President of Poland.

Not as far as in 1998 the NIK was highly evaluated by 60% of Poles. In May 2007 favourable reviews reached only up to 40%.

The NIK got 88 points out of the maximum 100 points, mainly for its independence and transparency of its activities. The aim of the report was to gather information on how corruption is prevented and to asses how anti-corruption measures add to the improvement of the public life quality and good governance. Similar monitoring exercises have been conducted in 25 European countries, in cooperation with the European Commission.

As provided in the 2011-2017 EUROSAI Strategic Plan (Project 4.3.1-2), the development of a draft EUROSAI Communication Policy is one of the tasks of the Goal Team 4 Governance & Communication. Within the Team, the Dutch and Polish SAIs are responsible for this project.

The EUROSAI Communication Policy is to be adopted by the 9th EUROSAI Congress to be held in The Hague in 2014.

If you want to learn more, please get in touch with Hayo van der Wal from the Netherlands Court of Audit.

According to Henrik Otbo, supreme audit institutions have new challenges to meet. They should think how to preserve the high quality of their reports and simultaneously generate them faster. They must also consider whether, in the face of the European crisis, they should focus on consulting rather than on auditing only, in order to provide good and effective solutions to the auditees. Another question that SAIs have to answer is how to further strengthen international cooperation to mutually use their experience. The crisis is an additional reason for auditors from different countries to work more closely, to draw on experience of others, and on lessons that others had to learn, claims Henrik Otbo.

Budgetary audits are comprehensive in nature and they cover both financial and performance elements. They are carried out in accordance with the binding methodologies, auditing standards of the NIK and international auditing standards. A separate report is produced after each budgetary audit, comprising a single budget part, while the execution of the whole budget is summarised in the Analysis.

The NIK audits entities that administer individual parts of the state budget, agencies and funds whose financial plans are included in the budget law, the National Bank of Poland (NBP), and other entities that use budget subsidies.

The results of audits conducted in each office are published on the NIK website. This year, in its results of the state budget execution audit, the NIK will present the list of institutions that did not pay the radio and TV licence fee in 2011. 

The NIK started chairing EUROSAI in 2008, and 2011 - the last year of the Presidency, was particularly busy. On the initiative of the NIK, the first strategic plan was developed for EUROSAI. Another accomplishment was a cooperative audit on professional activation of persons with disabilities, in which over a dozen European Supreme Audit Institutions participated. The NIK was the coordinator of that audit.

The NIK also organised the seminar dedicated to SAIs’ communication with the public opinion via the media. The seminar, held in Warsaw in the NIK Headquarters, gathered representatives of media units from about 20 European SAIs. They debated on how communication between SAIs, the media and the public opinion could be improved.

At the VIII EUROSAI Congress held at the end of May and at the beginning of June 2011 in Lisbon, the NIK handed over the EUROSAI Presidency to the Court of Audit of Portugal.

The NIK’s activities over 2011 were not restricted to the European region. The NIK also participated in initiatives undertaken in a wider international forum. For over a year, the NIK has been chairing the Subcommittee on Internal Control Standards, which is a body operating within INTOSAI - an international organisation that gathers Supreme Audit Institutions from all parts of the world. The Subcommittee is tasked with developing and promoting standards, guidelines and good practices in the field of internal control in the public sector.

Last year, the NIK also took a decision to be peer reviewed. A peer review exercise will be conducted by experts from Austria, Denmark, Lithuania and the Netherlands, and its results will be announced at the end of 2012. 

From the materials gathered by the NIK it transpires that mistakes were made by institutions responsible for organising journeys of persons on managerial positions, which was due to the lack of a coherent system of procedures in the area. This hampered, in the first place, cooperation on the organisation of visits of those who used air transport of the Polish Armed Forces. The institutions that prepared such visits did not have clearly identified tasks, cooperation principles nor responsibilities. In practice, they applied various solutions based on subjective decisions, had to improvise and interpreted unclear and inconsistent regulations in various ways.

The procedures in place did not indicate an entity responsible for arranging and verifying technical details of visits related to their organisation and safety.

Threats to lives and health of persons using air transport of the Polish Armed Forces were also related to irregularities found, especially those regarding the 36th special air transport regiment (SPLT).

Subsequent ministers responsible for defence and commanders of air forces were informed by the SPLT command of problems related to staffing, training and equipment quality, still they failed to take effective activities to tackle them. Neither the Ministry of Defence nor subsequent governments worked out a coherent concept for the organisation of air transport for VIPs that would provide the required high level of safety. The NIK has also found irregularities in the performance of the Office of the Prime Minister (KPRM), the Government Protection Bureau (BOR), and the Ministry of Interior and Administration (MSWiA).       

The NIK has elaborated 49 volumes of audit documentation that were submitted to the Prosecutor’s Office. The NIK has also developed 35 audit recommendations aimed at eliminating the most serious irregularities.

The resolution was adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 22 December 2011. The document emphasises that SAIs can perform their tasks objectively and efficiently only if they are independent of the audited entity and are protected against outside influence. It also recognises the important role that SAIs play in promoting efficiency, accountability, effectiveness and transparency of public administration and takes note with appreciation of INTOSAI’s achievements to date. The UN also encourages Member States to apply the principles set out in the Lima and Mexico Declarations. 

The NIK’s audit of 2002 was carried out in forty-four driving centres where several irregularities were found, such as, for instance, allowing candidates to take practical courses before finishing theoretical ones (in every second centre), and awarding certificates on course completion to those who actually have not completed them. There were also cases found, luckily only few, of driving instructors employed in those centres who had no qualifications to train drivers. The results of driving tests also proved that candidates for divers were not prepared sufficiently - only one-third passed them at the first attempt.

The NIK also audited almost half of centres where driving tests are organised. As a result, it turned out that tests were not carried out properly in seventeen out of them. Sometimes candidates passed tests although they had made more mistakes than the regulations allowed. The NIK also observed that in some cases the examiner did not check the candidate’s identity before the test.

Auditors also verified the qualifications of examiners. In two centres, among the examiners there were persons with a criminal record for breaking traffic regulations, including driving under the influence of alcohol, as well as persons accused of taking bribes. Almost five percent of the drivers surveyed by the NIK claimed to have obtained their driving licences in exchange for a bribe.

After its audit of 2002, the NIK alarmed that corruption related to driving tests should be attributed to their very system, in which candidates are examined by one examiner only, with no other witnesses. The NIK’s observations contributed to the changes that were introduced to the regulations in this field in 2006. Since then, practical driving tests have been recorded on video.

Another mechanism that added to irregularities in the area was the financing of driving test centres. Their activities, including remunerations for examiners, were financed from fees for driving tests. Therefore, the bigger number of tests candidates took, the bigger income the centres generated.

The NIK also observed that driving licences could be easily forged. Its opinion has also been considered by the competent authorities and the driving licence paper has been modified.

The year 2012 is the first year for which audit priorities are set in a new manner: there will be one main priority and several additional priorities.

Main priority

Ensure current and long-term financial stability of the State

Additional priorities

Improve the effectiveness of the education system

Ensure available and effective medical care

Preserve national heritage, natural resources and effective town and country planning

Within the main priority, the NIK will examine, for example, the debt of the institutions form the governmental and self-governmental sector, the development of the gas transmission network and the implementation of the electronic system for collecting road charges. The NIK will also audit how customs chambers collect amounts due, and how the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development (PARP) conducts competitions and concludes agreements upon granting subsidies from the Structural Funds.

Additionally, as for 2012, follow-up audits aimed at checking the implementation of recommendations resulting from audits completed in the years 2009 - 2011 have been included in the list of planned audits.

The new Work Plan of the NIK for 2012 comprises 202 audits: 95 audits of the state budget execution, 94 new audits and 13 audits that were started in 2011 to be completed over 2012.

During his key presentation, President of the NIK focused on the Polish experience from the transformation period following 1989. Iraqi auditors were particularly interested in the relation on how the NIK had changed from a post-communist institution into a modern audit body operating in a democratic country. 'For a democratic state to function, it is necessary to have a professional audit body that would be independent of the executive and that would safeguard public money spending. In a democratic world, such institutions are the norm,' said Jacek Jezierski.

While his second presentation was dedicated to the importance of information policy and effective communication for SAIs. He presented the example of the NIK's new information strategy that focuses on participation of the NIK in the public debate.

Experiences related to the importance of an independent audit body in establishing structures of a democratic state, as well as comments on public finance management and governance, were also presented by other speakers invited to the workshop: Saskia J. Stuiveling, President of the SAI of the Netherlands, Anthony Hegarty from the World Bank, and representatives of the SAI of France, Malaysia and the United Kingdom.

The workshop was financed by the World Bank.

During this audit, auditors from twelve European SAIs examined the costs of control activities performed by the Member States in the years 2007-2009 for Structural Funds, within the 2007-2013 programming period. Each SAI that was engaged in the audit was tasked with examining at least one operational programme.

On the basis of national audits, it was established that varying costs of control activities could be attributed to different solutions used by the Member States as for the organisation of the systems for Structural Funds implementation. In 2007, the costs of control activities were the lowest and have been increasing systematically since then. In some cases, financial benefits have been obtained. Still, auditors emphasise that controls also bring benefits other than financial.

Costs were assessed with the use of two methods: cost-centre accounting and cost-unit accounting. The cost-centre accounting method relies on calculating costs on the basis of the budget of an institution’s organisational unit and the number of employees responsible for a given control activity in relation to the total number of employees. The other method - cost-unit accounting - consists in calculating costs of each individual control activity performed by a given institution.

On 24-25 November 2011 in Warsaw, a meeting was held related to the planned peer review between President of the NIK Jacek Jezierski and Head of the Danish Rigsrevisionen Henrik Otbo, as well as experts from the two SAIs. During the meeting, the objectives, scope, schedule, criteria and conditions of the peer review were discussed. The NIK would like the peer review to focus on its audit process, but other areas, such as those related to audit strategy and priorities, attitude to audit planning, audit procedures, reporting and post audit activities will also be reviewed.

This is not going to be the first peer review of the NIK. In 2000, the NIK was reviewed by SIGMA experts with regard to compliance with EU standards. Then, in 2006 a peer review of the NIK was conducted by the SAI of Denmark. Experts from the NIK, in turn, have participated in peer reviewing teams twice. They have reviewed the activity of the Danish Rigsrevisionen and the Supreme Audit Office of the Slovak Republic.

During the visit to Warsaw, the President of the Danish SAI was officially handed in by the President of the NIK the Auditor’s Assistant application (Polish: Pomocnik Kontrolera) which supports auditors’ work with regard to its analytical and statistical aspects. Danish auditors are very much interested in applying this IT tool in their audit activity.

Only in two schools (out of 52 audited), there were no cases found of overweight or obese children. In other schools, the problem has been constantly increasing, despite preventive measures taken. In 87 percent of schools that have small shops and in 75 percent of those who have food vending machines, the food offered is of low quality that no dietician would recommend (such as crisps, sweet carbonated drinks, energy drinks). At the same time, as many as one-third of schools do not provide lunches for students at all. Interestingly enough, in four out of eight audited schools that have been awarded the title of  a ”Health-promoting school” there are shops that offer fast food. None of the audited local authorities used their right to pass a resolution that would forbid school shops to sell low quality products. Only 16 percent of the audited schools have shops with health food. It has been also observed that local self-governments frequently expect managers of schools to support their budgets with incomes from renting space to those who run small shops in schools. This, obviously, makes the authorities of schools less willing to influence the owners of shops.    

Attempts taken by schools and local authorities in order to promote healthy lifestyle among schoolchildren are usually accidental, incoherent, short-term and hence ineffective. Local authorities usually just extend the sports base and organise sports and tourist events. Local authorities do not develop reports on nutrition needs of children that would be the basis for local measures in the area. Education programmes elaborated in the audited schools comprise issues related to health, however only one-third of them set tasks directly dedicated to combating overweight and obesity. The NIK also observes that it is not possible to assess the effectiveness of those programmes, since they were not proceeded with analyses of the scale of overweight and obesity in individual schools, and did not cover the actual needs of students. The audited schools do not include issues related to overweight and obesity combating in plans for professional development for teachers, and the majority of the teachers surveyed by the NIK admit that they are not prepared to support children in preventing these problems.    

It is estimated that every fourth child in Europe is overweight. Obesity is not only a serious health problem, but it also is a burden to the economy: in some EU member states it eats up about 6 percent of government spending for public health. That is why programmes aimed at combating obesity have become a priority for all countries of the European Community. In response to the recommendations of the EU in the area, the Polish Ministry of Health implements the programme for preventing obesity, for which PLN 5.9 million were allocated for the years 2007-2011, out of which only PLN 2.4 million were actually spent by 2010.

The problems with IT auditing are to a large extent universal. Auditors who examine new phenomena (such as, e.g., cloud computing and transborder use of electronic signature) can benefit from experience of their colleagues from other countries who have already audited these issues. The tool that the NIK has to offer is still a prototype, but its effects can be already observed: in the e-PUAP audit, the scheme of the e-Government audit (a result of collaboration of several SAIs) was applied successfully, and later made available to partners all over the world.

The representatives of European SAIs working on the development of the e-GOV platform are all of the opinion that cooperation and involvement of all participants are the key to the success of the project. The EUROSAI Working Group on IT Audit, chaired by the SAI of Switzerland, has asked individual SAIs to sent reports and data, indicating the NIK website which hosts the e-GOV platform.  

The project is implemented within EUROSAI - the European Organisation of Supreme Audit Institution, but the NIK emphasises that it is ready to cooperate with all audit and control institutions worldwide. The tool that is being created will be available to all those who wish to access results of IT audits in an effective way.