WITH DEFICIENCES OF VIEW
Youtube
Facebook
print
Today, April 16, the Court of Accounts of the Republic of Moldova (CoARM) presented, during the plenary session of the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova, the Activity Report of the Court of Accounts for 2019.
The report was presented by Andrei Munteanu, Member of the CoA, and Marian Lupu, the President of the Court of Accounts, who was present at the meeting, spoke and answered to the deputies' questions, in order to clarify the topics approached during the discussions.
In his speech, Mr. Munteanu spoke about the aspects related to the operational activity of the institution: finances and budget, the staff of the Court of Accounts, the certification of public auditors, the international collegial evaluation of the CoA by similar institutions from European states, international collaboration, etc.
According to the Activity Report for 2019, the Court of Accounts is fully financed from the state budget and has its own budget, which is administered according to the legal provisions. In 2019, for the exercise of functional attributions, expenditures were made from the state budget in the total amount of 50.6 million lei, which constitutes 98% compared to the specified plan.
Andrei Munteanu underlined the importance and primordial value of the CoA’s employees, mentioning that in the reference period, the share of the age group was 30-40 years, which attests the fact that the staff renewal is mainly done with people who already have the experience and the professional skills required. Likewise, in 2019, the Court of Accounts faced a considerable reduction in the labor force (about 25%), compared to previous years, one of the causes being the lack of salary motivation.
Another noteworthy area is the certification of staff with public audit responsibilities, which was an innovative initiative, with similar systems found only in some supreme audit institutions in the world. The certification process included two stages: training and attestation of competencies. In total, in 2019, 85 employees were certified.
For the first time, in 2019, the Court of Accounts initiated the external peer evaluation of the institution, in terms of quality aspects, compliance with INTOSAI standards and international best practices. A consortium has been set up to carry out this assessment, which includes representatives of the following institutions: the European Commission and the OECD (SIGMA initiative), the Latvian State Audit Office and the Turkish Court of Accounts. The presentation of the final report of this evaluation is expected for the second quarter of this year.
A productive collaboration on an external level ensures both the promotion of the best practices in the institution, and the promotion of the image of the Court of Accounts on an international level. Among the most active development partners in the reference year were the European Union (European Committee), the OECD (SIGMA), the Swedish National Audit Office, the Court of Accounts of the Netherlands and, for the first time, the European Court of Accounts.
Likewise, a close collaboration between the Court of Accounts and the World Bank (WB) was maintained, being requested to audit the projects financed by the WB. These relationships are due, in part, to the credibility gained by the Court of Accounts as a result of the World Bank's assessment of the quality of external public audit materials on funded projects.
Also, during the reporting period, the supreme audit institution marked the beginning of a new stage in the process of collaboration with civil society, representatives of a number of NGOs, such as Expert-Grup, IDIS Viitorul are involved in various activities of the Court of Accounts, the basic goal being to ensure transparency and promote an efficient collaboration for the benefit of the whole society.
The Court of Accounts pays special attention to communicating and informing citizens. In this sense, during the reference period, activities for the implementation of the Communication Strategy were initiated and continued, meant to ensure the transparency of the entire activity of the Court of Accounts. Access to information was ensured by broadcasting public hearings on the institution's website, on social networks, as well as by placing all reports and decisions of the Court on the website.
We note that the purpose of the Activity Report is to inform the Parliament and other stakeholders about how the Court of Accounts used its own resources to carry out the activities, provided for the budget year 2019 (January 1 – December 31 2019), as well as the performance of institution during the reporting period.
Finally, with the majority vote of the deputies, the Activity Report of the Court of Accounts for 2019 was approved.
