Polish, Slovak and Ukrainian auditors will examine, whether the transboundary movement of hazardous waste in their countries is compliant with the Basel Convention, and does neither threaten the environment nor the human health. President of NIK, Krzysztof Kwiatkowski, Chairman of the Ukrainian Accounting Chamber, Valerii Patskan, and President of the Slovak Supreme Audit Office, Karol Mitrík, signed a common position in which they stressed the importance of the initiative, and specified the organisation of future actions.
The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal is one of the most global environmental agreements. Since its preparation in 1989, it was ratified by 187 countries, including all member states of the European Union. The Convention is aimed to protect the human health and the environment against harmful effects of waste generation and utilization.
Compliance with the Basel Convention by Poland, Slovakia and Ukraine was subject to an international audit conducted in 2007 by their SAIs. A common report was published the following year, in which SAIs concluded that the transboundary system of waste movement between Ukraine, Slovakia and Poland requires elimination of irregularities concerning supervision and audit. Auditors recommended to:
- enhance cooperation of authorities and services in charge of the transboundary waste transport;
- amend legal regulations defining duties of institutions in charge of the register and methods of supervision over waste movement;
- improve the equipment of border services enabling waste identification.
In order to assess the implementation of the said recommendations, SAIs of Ukraine, Slovakia and Poland agreed to conduct another audit of compliance with the Basel Convention in their states (which is to be performed within the framework of the EUROSAI Working Group on the Audit of Funds Allocated to Disasters and Catastrophes).
Heads of the three SAIs met in Bratislava to discuss the matter. Krzysztof Kwiatkowski, Valerii Patskan and Karol Mitrík signed a common position concerning the cooperation and division of duties within the follow-up audit on the status of compliance with the Basel Convention of transboundary movement of hazardous waste.
According to the document the main objective of the international audit is to assess how Poland, Ukraine and Slovakia observe the provisions of the Convention. Auditors will also review the implementation of the 2008 audit recommendations. As the audit coordinator NIK undertook to prepare the audit programme, as well as the joint report summarising the results of national audits. The period to be audited is 1 January 2015-30 June 2019.
