On 14-15 April, NIK President Marian Banaś took part in the XI EUROSAI Congress and the meeting of the EUROSAI Governing Board. The meeting was organised by the Supreme Audit Office of the Czech Republic and was held online.
The European Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions is one of regional organisations of INTOSAI, currently associating 51 European audit institutions. EUROSAI is an intermediary in information exchange on external state audit. It also participates in developing international audit standards and organises training programmes for auditors. All EUROSAI members are part of the Congress, which is the supreme decision-making body of EUROSAI and its meetings are among the most prominent events of the international community of auditors. As a rule, the Congress assembles once in three years. The next Congress will be organised in 2024 in Israel.
During this year’s Congress new members of the EUROSAI Governing Board have been elected. Upon motion of the President of EUROSAI, the Supreme Audit Office of the Czech Republic, NIK President has been reappointed Vice-President of EUROSAI. The international community of auditors recognised the achievements and experience of NIK. This is an outcome of personal commitment of NIK President and effects of NIK’s to-date cooperation within EUROSAI.
At the Congress meeting, NIK President presented a report on the implementation of the second strategic goal in 2017-2021. As part of the EUROSAI Governing Board, NIK is responsible for implementing the second goal of the EUROSAI Strategic Plan for 2017-2023 – Helping SAIs deal with new opportunities and challenges by supporting and facilitating their institutional capacity development. In cooperation with the Swedish National Audit Office, NIK coordinates and monitors the implementation of initiatives taken as part of that goal. In the reporting period in 2018, a meeting of methodologists was organised in Warsaw and an e-learning course on task performance audit was carried out. Also, an internship programme for auditors from European SAIs was prepared.
During the Congress, reports on the activity of EUROSAI teams, working groups and task forces were also adopted. One of them was a report of the Working Group on Environmental Auditing, led since 2020 by the Supreme Audit Office of Poland. NIK President discussed the report on the Group’s activity and also presented its work programme for the coming years as well as parallel audits in progress, including the international audit on plastic waste management. NIK conducted a national audit on the reduction and effective management of waste in Poland.
The EUROSAI members also appointed the host of the following Congress – Israel and two new members of the EUROSAI Governing Board. The term of the SAIs of Finland and the Netherlands has come to an end and all EUROSAI members unanimously decided that the Heads of SAIs of the United Kingdom and Lithuania should take their places. The EUROSAI auditors for the coming years have also been appointed – the SAIs of Bulgaria and Croatia. The Court of Auditors of Turkey handed over the EUROSAI Presidency to the Supreme Audit Office of the Czech Republic.
The EUROSAI members gathered at the Congress updated the EUROSAI Strategic Plan, approved the financial statement and the report of auditors for 2017-2020 and adopted the EUROSAI budget for 2022-2024. The Congress also officially accepted the status of the SAI of Kosovo as a full-fledged member of EUROSAI. NIK has closely cooperated with the National Audit Office of Kosovo, among others on the implementation of twinning projects.
The EUROSAI Congress was accompanied by meetings of the EUROSAI Governing Board – with the former and newly elected members. During the Governing Board meeting on 15 April, functions and tasks were assigned to the new members. NIK, as Vice-President of the EUROSAI Governing Board in cooperation with the National Audit Office of Sweden will continue to coordinate the second goal of the EUROSAI Strategic Plan for 2017-2023 – Helping SAIs deal with new opportunities and challenges by supporting and facilitating their institutional capacity development. Both SAIs will monitor the implementation of initiatives taken as part of this goal and manage them.
The Governing Board which is now composed of the SAIs of the Czech Republic (President), Israel (Vice-President), Lithuania, Spain, the United Kingdom, Latvia and Turkey, also appointed a team to draft a new strategic plan of EUROSAI – for 2024-2029. NIK will be involved in the team works.
President Marian Banaś presented the EUROSAI Governing Board with an idea of a language training for European institutions being part of EUROSAI called the Audit English. The course is to make its participants familiar with the lexicon and syntax of the specialist language of auditing in the public sector. The course participants could use this knowledge in their auditor’s work e.g. to exchange experience with other SAIs, conduct joint audits, make contribution to multilateral reports or analyse English-language reports of technical publications. The project will be implemented by a project group newly established for this purpose. The group will be chaired by the Supreme Audit Office with the support of the SAI of the UK and Sweden, as part of the second strategic goal of EUROSAI.
The next meeting of the Governing Board is scheduled for autumn this year, in London.
Membership in the EUROSAI Governing Board is part of the strategy of NIK’s involvement in international projects and the Strategy of the Supreme Audit Office for 2021-2024 – e.g. implementation of the following strategic goals: 1.3 Strengthening cooperation with stakeholders (including operational goal 1.3.2. International cooperation); 2.2 Development of innovative audit methods; 3.1 Strengthening audit capacity; 3.2 Achievement of the highest standards; 4.1 Professional development. It also enables developing cooperation with member states of the Three Seas Initiative, i.e. Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Romania, which – like NIK – are strongly involved in the structures and activities of EUROSAI and its Governing Board.
NIK has been active in working groups and task forces of EUROSAI, e.g. in the group on environmental auditing (NIK has led its works since June 2020), in the Covid-19 group, in the IT group (NIK was its chair in 2013-2020), in the group on using funds for catastrophes and natural disasters or in the group on local government audits.
