The meeting was opened by NIK President Krzysztof Kwiatkowski who emphasised NIK’s involvement in that project. ”We treat the audit of CERN in a special way. Poland is a member of the Organisation, that is why we feel co-responsible for the quality of its management” - he said.
NIK’s task boils down to verifying whether financial statements of CERN and its Pension Fund are true and fair. NIK also wishes to regard and present its view on the CERN Pension Fund governance. The audit is being conducted in line with international auditing standards. It is supervised by a special committee chaired by NIK Vice-President, Mr Jacek Uczkiewicz and conducted by a team led by Mr Wiesław Kurzyca, Advisor to NIK President.
The objective of the Warsaw meeting for both the audit team and the CERN delegation was to finalise discussion on the draft audit reports and management letters, thus summing up the first year of NIK’s mandate. The reporting documents will soon be submitted to the CERN Council. NIK is going to audit the Organisation’s financial statements and, possibly, conduct other audits for two more years, however it is possible to extend NIK’s mandate for another two years.
The European Organisation for Nuclear Research is a science and research centre. It was established in 1954 and now includes 21 member states, including Poland. The activity of CERN is financed by member states which pay annual contributions proportional to their national income. The CERN Council has a Polish Chair at the moment - prof. Agnieszka Bąk-Zalewska.
Although Poland is one of so-called new members in the Organisation (it joined CERN after 1989), the Council of CERN entrusted the Polish Supreme Audit Office with the external auditor function for the period from 2013 to 2015. The appointment was made on 21 June 2012 as a result of voting of then 20 member states.
