Building Good Governance: Experiences of the SAIs in Central and Eastern Europe Dr. Árpád Kovács President State Audit Office of Hungary

Factors of culture and tranditions Social and political factors Technical and technological factors Private sector Public institutions, Government, (Public Finances) Competitive ness Global competition, world economic perspectives International organizations and institutions, integration criteria

Tasks and responsibilities identified Figures in line with budgetary estimates Precise financial statements with the most up-to-date information Satisfactory financial controls Clear definition of responsibility to account for actions Accounting for plans and achieved targets Enforcing sanctions Independent external audit ACCOUNTABILITY

Convincing presentation of priorities to be addressed in practice Clear explanation and supporting information for budget figures TRANSPAREN CY Independent, reliable audit and analysis Making information open to the public Publishing final accounts in a format understandable for all Motivation for higher quality work through publishing results

Transitional characteristics in SAI roles Addressing issues of a transitional society Develop new relations between Parliaments and SAIs

New challenges for SAIs Increasing need for the performance audit of the use of budgetary resources, and for quality assurance in the audit process Government (or parliamentary) requests for the evaluation of reform measures (programs, projects), and for helping the modernization of financial control systems

Special roles related to EU accession Identifying the ‘best audit practice’ through the different forms of cooperation among SAIs Audit of pre-accession programs (eg. Phare, ISPA, SAPARD)

Recommendations for the most important criteria in aligning with the EU environment Legal framework (points 1, 2, 3, 5) Adoption of audit standards (point 6) Developing the organization of SAIs (points 7, 8, 9, 10) The role of SAIs in evaluating and helping develop internal control systems (point 11)

Objectives of the Audit Activities Working Group Identify the suitable audit fields Find partners for cooperation among the SAIs of EU member states Identify the specific audit field, objectives, timing, and need for technical assistance Identify training and development needs on the basis of experience from cooperation

Status of training related to EU requirements 5 SAIs developed a training strategy by the end of SAIs are currently developing a training strategy 5 SAIs do not have a training strategy 1 SAI is preparing to develop a training strategy 2 SAIs have an annual training program