The meetings were attended among others by: the Chairman of the Slovak Parliament (the National Council of the Slovak Republic), the Chief of Staff of Slovak President’s Office, the President of the Supreme Audit Office of the Czech Republic acting as the Chair of EUROSAI (European Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions) and Presidents of the so-called V4+2 Group, i.e. Supreme Audit Institutions of the Visegrad Group countries as well as Austria and Slovenia and representatives of the public administration of the Slovak Republic and employees of the Slovak SAI.
During the event emphasis was laid on the role of independent state audit in real improvement of state management, impact on national economies and real contribution of auditing to improve the quality of public services and effectiveness of public spending. An example of good practices is the situation in the Czech Republic. Following an audit of the Czech SAO, despite recent increase in the costs of materials and employee costs, the average motorway construction cost per km in the past five years was lowered by half.
The Slovak SAI significantly contributed to the corruption control in this sector, by informing citizens about pathologies in this area and reporting possible crimes to law enforcement bodies. International cooperation – including the working meeting at NIK and comparison of motorway construction costs in Poland and other neighbouring countries - also helped to make citizens aware of the real average motorway construction cost per km in different countries.
For many years now, NIK has cooperated with the Supreme Audit Office of the Slovak Republic. The two SAIs jointly carried out parallel audits, were part of the EUROSAI and INTOSAI working groups and participated in peer reviews. Also, NIK invited experts from the Slovak SAI to join twinning projects. The Slovak SAI is the chair of an INTOSAI group which develops modern methods of conducting peer reviews in SAIs worldwide. Until present, NIK has participated in peer reviews (or conducted its own ones) in the SAIs of the following countries: the Republic of Indonesia, the Republic of Lithuania, the Republic of Latvia, Estonia, Romania, the Slovak Republic, Hungary and the European Court of Auditors.
