The Accounting Chamber of Ukraine plans to conduct international audits on prevention and elimination of consequences of earthquakes and fires

The EUROSAI Working Group on the Audit of Funds Allocated to Disasters and Catastrophes, chaired by the Accounting Chamber of Ukraine, approved the Strategic Plan for 2021–2024. In particular, the plans are to conduct international coordinated audits on prevention and elimination of consequences of earthquakes, fires and preparedness of governments for natural and man-made disasters.

This is stated in the Activity Report of the EUROSAI Working Group on the Audit of Funds Allocated to Disasters and Catastrophes for 2021. Mr. Viktor Bohun, Member of the Accounting Chamber, is responsible for preparation of the Activity Report.  

The document states that the activities of the Working Group contribute to the capacity building, coordination and consolidation of efforts of the European SAIs to help their governments in development of effective and efficient instruments for prevention and consequences elimination of disasters and catastrophes.

In November 2021, the VIIth Meeting of the EUROSAI Working Group on the Audit of Funds Allocated to Disasters and Catastrophes was held online. The event brought together 49 participants from the SAIs of 16 countries. At the meeting the representatives of the SAI of Poland presented the results of the International Coordinated Audit “Transboundary movement of waste in light of the Basel Convention” with participation of the SAIs of Ukraine, Poland and Slovakia. This audit is particularly relevant given the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, when most countries accumulate significant amounts of waste from personal protective equipment, which must be disposed of as hazardous. The Joint Report of the audit was approved by the decision of the Accounting Chamber at the end of June 2021 and signed by the SAIs-participants at the end of July 2021.

In 2022, the activities of the Working Group are planned to focus on such events: seminar on the international coordinated audit on the prevention and consequences elimination of fires; VIII annual meeting and seminar of the Working Group; updating and preparation of draft common positions on conducting international coordinated audits on the prevention and consequences elimination of fires and earthquakes.

The main aspects of the Strategic Plan of the Working Group for the next three years are not only the continuation of work on audits of government preparedness for natural and man-made disasters, exchange of experience between auditors and the organization of other joint activities, but also:

• increasing the level of publicity of the work;
• active promotion of results of the Working Group’s activities by creating a separate website of the Group and information page of the Working Group on social networks;
• expanding the range of users as a result of its work and the number of SAIs interested in participating in its activities;
• considering the possibility of closer cooperation with other working groups of EUROSAI and INTOSAI in order to draw public attention to current disaster threats; 
• the need to intensify the activities of the Working Group, in particular in the direction of expanding cooperation with non-governmental organizations and experts;

and, of course, ensuring the transparency and efficiency of the implementation of the activities within the Working Group.

The Report will be published on the official website of the Accounting Chamber.

Reference:

The EUROSAI Working Group on the Audit of Funds Allocated to Disasters and Catastrophes was established in 2014 by the resolution of the IX EUROSAI Congress. Throughout the period, the Group is chaired by the Accounting Chamber of Ukraine.

Since 2021 the Working Group consists of 20 supreme audit institutions.