The NIK structure should be independent from the silo structure of the government administration and respond to the needs of the state and its citizens satisfied by implementing public policies.
The new charter entrusts audit tasks to bigger organisational units which better comply with the performance audit requirements (investigating efficiency and effectiveness of public institutions) as well as international standards. For instance, at present NIK has 14 departments, the SAI of Denmark (Rigsrevisionen) 10 less, and the SAI of France (Cour des comptes) has 8 departments less. As for the European Court of Audits, it has 5 large audit chambers.
The draft assumes that instead of imitating the structure of ministries – as it has been to date – the departments will look into bigger groups of issues. Six departments will audit the implementation of public policies in the following areas: security of the state and its citizens, economic development and science, social affairs and healthcare, cohesion and sustainable regional development, utilisation and protection of natural resources, as well as management of the state structures and use of the state financial resources.
Also, 16 branches will have a bigger role to play. The will specialise in selected areas and cooperate with the headquarters, operating on a larger area than before. Their competences will be divided in five areas (provisionally called macroregions), covering three or four provinces.
The new organisations is also supposed to prevent conflicts of interest. The proposed rotation of auditors aims at avoiding the situation where the same persons audit the same institutions for a long time, as it may give rise to informal links. The charter also provides for appointing the Ethics Committee to focus even more on high working standards.
The changes will be carried out based on the existing personnel capacity. The charter implementation, planned to start on 1 January 2026, will not result in increased financial effects in the budget of the Supreme Audit Office and thus in the state budget.
The new organisational units, in line with their competences, will continue the ongoing audits. In case of audits planned for 2026, an update of NIK’s approved work plan is scheduled. Besides, evaluation of the existing audit planning system is envisaged to look into legitimacy of planning in longer cycles (e.g. for three years), based on the experience of other audit organisations.
Before the draft charter was passed by the Council of NIK, it was made available to all NIK employees for comments.
