The heads of three institutions involved in the project called Further strengthening of Kosovo National Audit Office took part in the project closing conference in Pristina: President of the Supreme Audit Office of Poland Marian Banaś, Auditor General of the Republic of Kosovo Besnik Osmani and Deputy Head of Cooperation at EU Office in Pristina Hillen Francke.
The Auditor General of the Republic of Kosovo gave thanks to NIK President for professional, friendly and productive cooperation during the project implementation. He underlined that although most of the project activities were performed in the pandemic, the assumed objectives were achieved. The Auditor General noted that the primary task of his Office is to provide the parliament, the government and citizens with reliable information about the condition of the state finance and the way public money is managed by public administration bodies. He also stated that the project deliverables have positive impact on the way those tasks are performed by the Kosovo National Audit Office.
NIK President thanked the employees of the SAI of Kosovo and his associates from NIK for excellent cooperation and expressed his satisfaction with the fact that the project contributed to better quality of audit in Kosovo and improved implementation of recommendations given by Kosovan auditors. “I am proud that NIK accomplished this project. Our countries have a similar history and experiences. Let me thank Auditor General of the Republic of Kosovo Mr Besnik Osmani for his vision and courage. Mr Osmani is a responsible leader who understands the significance of international cooperation – said President Banaś.
Deputy Head of Cooperation at EU Office in Pristina, Hillen Francke said she was happy that the European Union financed a project which brought about such tangible results. “I am really happy with the results of the Twinning Project between the Kosovo National Audit Office and the Supreme Audit Office of Poland. “This is our seventh project for the SAI of Kosovo. And this is because the role of SAIs is so important in terms of managing public funds and ensuring transparency of this process” – said Francke.
The project Further strengthening of Kosovo National Audit Office which started in August 2019 was made up of three components dedicated to financial audit, effective implementation of audit recommendations and external communication. Most project activities were carried out online because of the pandemic, which was a huge organisational challenge for both parties. Experts from Poland and Portugal were involved in the project, covering over 400 man-days in total during about 30 missions.
In the course of the project works, the experts from both SAIs jointly developed among other things:
- the following version of the financial audit manual,
- compliance audit manual,
- in-depth analysis of causes of insufficient implementation of audit recommendations in Kosovo,
- guidelines on developing audit recommendations,
- internet database of audit recommendations and external communication strategy along with operational plan.
Numerous training programmes were conducted in the area of financial audit, IT systems audit, compliance audit and development of audit recommendations. Five pilot audits were conducted, three of which dealt with financial statements and two covered IT systems. Information materials for external stakeholders were prepared as well as a video promoting the mission of the Kosovo National Audit Office.
