On 21 December 2007, the Court of Accounts (CoA) met in its annual General Assembly which focused on the results of CoA activity in 2007 as well as the key directions of activity in 2008.
       According to the Report of CoA President, Ala Popescu, in accordance with the Control Program, in 2007 the CoA carried out 61 controls at 431 entities that use public finances and manage public assets.  In addition to the Control Program for 2007, the CoA carried out 4 controls at the request of the Parliament and 2 controls in common with the Centre for Combating Economic Crimes and Corruption,  at the initiative of the CoA President under provisions of art.30 para.(1) of the Law no.312-XIII.
       In January– December 2007, the CoA sittings adopted 82 decisions, including  25 decisions regarding the establishment of the normative and methodological base for the activity and internal organization of the Court;  3 decisions regarding the notifications to draft laws;  53 decisions on the examination of the control materials of which 50 decisions had been published in the Official Gazette. The CoA did not adopt any secret decisions, which confirms the public character of its activity.
       Over the year, as a result of carrying out CoA decisions, the national public budget recovered financial means totalling about 26,204.1 thousand lei, the public assets worth 88,313.2 mln lei was put on record and other means worth 773.9 thousand lei had been restored. Thus the indicator of efficiency of use of the money allotted to the CoA is estimated at 7.82 lei of encashed or recovered means versus 1 leu spent for the CoA.
     Referring to the achievements in 2007 in terms of CoA reform, the following were noted: 8 audit standards were approved;  2 pilot audits with elements of performance were carried out;   internal control assessment methodology was developed and some internal control assessments were carried out;  the Human Resource Management and Development Strategy and the IT Strategy were adopted;  the legal framework was analyzed and a new draft Law on the CoA was developed;  the organizational procedures with the donors were finalized and the procurement procedures for consultancy services and goods from the MDTF were started; the Annual Report was presented in the Parliament in a more analytical manner.
       Referring to international relations, the activity of the CoA in 2007 focused on the following basic goals: cooperation with the SNAO and World Bank under the Strategic Development Plan; the implementation of the bilateral cooperation agreements; cooperation with similar institutions of the EU Member States and CIS countries; active participation as a member of INTOSAI and EUROSAI.
        As to transparency, this year the CoA applied the practice of plenum sittings with the participation of the media. It was tried to inform the society about the specific activity of the CoA through television, radio and periodical publications. A new version of the official web page of the CoA was created in compliance with the public authorities’ information system requirements, which is constantly updated, thus ensuring transparency of CoA activity. The CoA published 2 issues of its Informative Bulletin which turned 1 year old this December.
       The CoA priority activities for 2008 were reflected in the Resolution adopted during the annual General Assembly.
        Maria Postoico, Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Lage Oloffson, SNAO expert, and CoA staff took the floor during the General Assembly.