The State Audit Institution (SAI) plans to audit the success of domestic and international donations related to COVID-19, which amount to over €8 million, member of the Senate of the Supreme Audit, Mr Branislav Radulović, has announced and added that it will work on the model of the European the Court of Auditors and most national supreme audits. Donations for the fight against the coronavirus started to be paid in March, when an epidemic was declared in Montenegro. The money was paid into the account of the National Coordination Body (NCB), headed until recently by Mr Milutin Simović. NCB no longer exists.
- Will the new Government organization cause problems in the work of SAI?
Mr Radulović: Partly yes, in monitoring the implementation of recommendations for those ministries that were subject to audit, and now do not exist in the previous organizational form. Therefore, we have already sent appropriate instructions or urgencies to some new ministries on how to implement the issued SAI recommendations for previously completed audits.
- EC emphasizes the importance of successful reforms. Will you increase the number of revisions next year and in what areas?
Mr Radulović: The number of success audits will be increased in 2021. Since this is a very complex type of audit, the SAI Senate adopted in December of 2019 a five-year plan for the implementation of this type of audits. The center of interest is sustainable development and efficiency of realization at the national level of the 17 millennium goals set by the UN General Assembly, which were especially emphasized at the Congress of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI) last year in Moscow.
An audit related to forest protection has already been completed, and audits related to the inspection of air quality and protection systems against sudden pollution in the Adriatic Sea are underway.
We also carry out audit of other important areas, such as the efficiency of CRPS operations or capital investments in road infrastructure. Pre-study research was completed for the audits of the Audit Committee of state-owned companies, the use of subsidies in agriculture, the effectiveness of actions in the field of competition protection, etc.
- Do you expect hearings in the Parliament in relation to SAI reports?
Mr Radulović: The announced strengthening of the control function of the Parliament will improve the institutional cooperation between the SAI and the Parliament, but the decision on holding the hearing should be made exclusively by the competent committees. This year, in addition to the report on the audit of the final account, we submitted to the Parliament eight reports that are primarily within the competence of the Committee on Economy, but some audits are under the competence of the Committee on Health and Social Welfare, i.e. the Committee on Education, Science and Culture.
As far as the report on the Police Directorate is concerned, according to the Law on Parliamentary Oversight, it is the competence of the Security and Defense Committee, and we expect its consideration to be done within the discussion on the final accounts of the security services, especially since the control of the entity had over €70 million at its disposal.
- What would be the priority of SAI next year?
Mr Radulović: Over the years, SAI has received very high marks from the EC and domestic and foreign partners, and this obliges us to continue to improve the quality of work and increase the number and scope of audits.
If the circumstances related to COVID-19 allow, we plan to end the started parallel performance audits with colleagues from Italy, Slovenia, Croatia and Albania, as well as to implement activities to improve the audit methodology. Also, improving cooperation with the parliament in order to monitor the implementation of the issued recommendations is one of the priorities of the future work of the Supreme State Audit Office.
- Within 2021 Plan, has SAI considered proposals made by NGO sector?
Mr Radulović: The annual audit plan for 2021 will be adopted by 31 December, and within each of the sectors, proposals for the SAI Senate have already been prepared and submitted. The proposal process already includes the University, the SEC and the CNP, which have been the subject of interest or initiatives of NGOs and other civil society organizations.
Also, for the current year, the initiative of the parents of children from the kindergarten “Đina Vrbica” has already been included to check the implementation of previous SAI recommendations regarding the disposal of food provided by parents.
