At the meeting of the Contact Committee of the heads of EU SAIs and the ECA in Bratislava NIK President, Krzysztof Kwiatkowski, met with the recently appointed President of the European Court of Auditors, Klaus-Heiner Lehne, who, despite being elected a month ago, was very well informed on the cooperation of NIK and ECA. Presidents talked about the programme of cooperation between NIK and the office of the Polish ECA Member, Janusz Wojciechowski. They also discussed audits conducted by ECA in Poland, as well as parallel audits in which NIK and ECA participate
In March 2016 NIK was invited to coordinate the international audit of air protection together with the SAI of Netherlands. The idea to conduct parallel audits of similar scope, based on similar methodology was conceived in the EUROSAI Working Group. Preliminary, over 20 SAIs stated that they will take part in the audit. ECA is one of the participants that confirmed their involvement.
The JASPERS project was also discussed at the meeting. It is a joint, cooperative initiative of NIK, ECA and the State Audit Office of Croatia concerning large amount of European funds spent in several European countries. NIK commenced the national audit in December 2015 (pre-audit activities were carried out in the Ministry of Development as JASPERS coordinator in Poland). The main coordinated audit launched in April 2016 encompassed the Ministry of Development (as the Managing Authority), as well as six projects using the support, including projects implemented by the General Directorate for National Roads and Motorways in Warsaw, Municipal Office of Warsaw, Marshal Office of the Masovian Voivodeship, Municipal Office of Poznań, Marshal Office of the Greater Poland Voivodeship and Municipal Office of Kraków. The preliminary draft of the audit report was prepared two months ago.
Another important issue discussed at the meeting was further cooperation related to the support for SAIs of Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. NIK is highly experienced in this area. For instance only recently, on 30 September, the two-year twinning project aimed at assisting the State Audit Office of Georgia in adjusting to the EU standards was finished.
The President of the European Court of Auditors, Klaus-Heiner Lehne, will pay a visit to Poland in the near future.
Klaus-Heiner Lehne, President of the European Court of Auditors, appointed at 13 September 2016, assumed the position on 1 October 2016; German politician and lawyer, member of the European Parliament (IV-VII terms of office). He studied law, physics and philosophy. In 1984-1992 Mr Lehne was a member of the City Council of Düsseldorf, later for two years a member of Bundestag (Christian Democratic Union of Germany). In 1994 he was appointed a deputy to the European Parliament. Since then Mr Lehne was re-elected in 1999, 2004 and 2009. He also undertook the function of the EPP Group coordinator for the Committee on Legal Affairs. He resigned in 2014, few months before the end of the term of office, because he was appointed a member of the ECA.
