For several years now, the SAIs of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia as well as Austria and Slovenia (the so-called V4+2 Group) have cooperated closely. During annual meetings of the SAIs’ Heads, issues critical for the state audit and for the region specificity are addressed. This year the Group met in Promnice in the South of Poland to discuss the effectiveness of measures taken by auditors and their impact on the condition of the state.
Heads and representatives of the V4+2 SAIs
The mandates of Supreme Audit Institutions in that respect are related to legal instruments they have at their disposal. Their effective use is of equal importance. Therefore, the debate in Promnice was focused mainly on the SAIs’ mandates in the states of the V4+2 Group and the exchange of experience in using them. The topics raised included: the right to information on implementing post-audit recommendations, the right to evaluate effectiveness of such implementations, the right to provide information on audit results to authorities supervising a given entity, the right to report a suspicion of a crime to law enforcement bodies and the right to submit de lege ferenda proposals.
In the past year, NIK has put a lot of effort to use the last two rights as effectively as possible. Under the agreement between NIK President Krzysztof Kwiatkowski and the Prosecutor General, special coordinators were appointed in district prosecutor’s offices to monitor the reports of a suspicion of a crime sent by NIK. At the same time, legal counsels were appointed in the Supreme Audit Office. They are responsible for the on-going cooperation with the prosecutor’s office and for the reports’ quality. They cooperate directly with prosecutors-coordinators. Additionally, the Prosecutor’s Office agreed to monitor all proceedings conducted based on the reports sent by NIK. Last year, the auditors held a series of meetings with prosecutors. It shows there is a potential for NIK’s reports to be used more effectively by the Prosecutor’s Office
The meeting participants showed great interest in the Polish experience. Moreover, Elżbieta Bieńkowska, European Commissioner for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs visited auditors in Promnice to share her views on the state audit from the EU perspective. Simultaneously, in Goławice near Warsaw an international seminar for auditors from Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova was held. The partners from the V4+2 Group have already declared they would like to support that project.
NIK cooperates with Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine >>>
Meetings of the V4+2 Group have been organised since 2002. The meeting in Promnice – apart from regular members – was attended by observers from Croatia. Next year the Group’s meeting will be organised by the SAI of the Czech Republic.
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