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Proposals for reforming the Accounting Chamber, in particular, ensuring its financial independence and integrity of its members, as well as the possibility of external assessment of the Accounting Chamber, were discussed on 6 September during a meeting between the leadership of the Accounting Chamber and representatives of the International Monetary Fund Mission to Ukraine.
The meeting was attended by the Chairwoman of the Accounting Chamber Olha Pishchanska, IMF Resident Representative in Ukraine Priscilla Toffano, Senior Economist of the IMF Heiko Hesse, Senior Counsel of the IMF Jonathan Pampolina, Acting Secretary of the Accounting Chamber - Chief of Staff Vasyl Nevidomyi, Advisor to the Chairwoman of the Accounting Chamber Dmytro Storozhuk and other experts.
The Mission representatives were interested in the key aspects of the Accounting Chamber reform and the process of preparation of the relevant draft laws by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. The Chairwoman of the Accounting Chamber, Olha Pishchanska, noted that the Accounting Chamber participates in the work of the relevant parliamentary working group and, at the same time, continuously improves its activities in accordance with the international standards of supreme audit institutions. In particular, the current law ‘On the Accounting Chamber’ has recently been amended to regulate the conduct of compliance audits by the institution.
‘Today, we have a generalised and agreed position on certain issues in this draft law. However, there are issues that have not been fully resolved. We are also actively discussing ways to strengthen the financial independence of the Accounting Chamber, in particular in the context of the process of approving its annual funding. We are also discussing the possibility of expanding the powers of the Accounting Chamber to conduct audits of local budgets. We have also started a discussion on the need to audit consolidated financial statements at the Government level,' said the Chairwoman of the Accounting Chamber.
The participants of the meeting discussed the views of the Accounting Chamber on the best ways to ensure its financial independence, the challenges related to this issue, the need to further develop the competencies of auditors, guarantee their independence, ensure proper working conditions, etc.
As a result, the sides agreed to continue the dialogue in a working manner, in particular, on the possibility of conducting an external assessment of the activities of the Accounting Chamber by experienced SAIs.
