”I do recommend adopting a system in which it is the responsibility of politicians to develop legislation, programmes and respond to citizens’ problems whereas public spending and integrity of procedures lie in the hands of apolitical and professional public officials” - NIK President said during the conference opening in Kyiv. NIK President also emphasised the great significance of independent state audit as one of the pillars of the democratic order.
During the meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Groysman and Dmitry Shymkiv, Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine, President Kwiatkowski assured that NIK experts would continue to cooperate with the Ukrainian officials in the field of the reforms of the civil service, local governments and public finance. Mr Kwiatkowski also suggested that NIK could help train representatives of the government administration, especially in terms of compliance of the Ukrainian administration with the EU standards.
In the course of his stay in Kyiv President Kwiatkowski also met with the Head of the Accounting Chamber of Ukraine - Ukrainian counterpart of NIK - Roman Maguta. They discussed the cooperative audit of the Bug River contamination in which Polish, Ukrainian and Belarusian auditors are involved. ”Our long-term goal is to make sure water in the Bug River is as clean as in its source in Western Ukraine” - both Presidents declared unanimously. The audit completion is scheduled for the middle of 2015.
The Presidents of both SAIs agreed to continue bilateral cooperation, particularly in the field of the EU funds’ auditing. They also mentioned other areas of potential cooperation, such as improvement of effectiveness of implementing audit results by the government administration, audit of projects financed from foreign funds and audit of public debt.
The visit of the Polish delegation to Kyiv started with commemoration of the victims of riots in the Independence Square in Kyiv (ukr.: Майдан Незалежності). NIK President in the presence of the Polish ambassador Henryk Litwin laid flowers in that special place. At the end of his visit, Krzysztof Kwiatkowski lit a candle at the Polish Military Cemetery in Bykovnia near Kyiv where thousands of victims of Stalin’s terror were laid to rest, including hundreds of the Polish murdered by the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs in 1940.
