Audit of local budgets: The Accounting Chamber studies the experience of France
The experience of the Court of Auditors (SAI) of France in auditing local budgets and interacting with regional units, the possible application of this experience by the Accounting Chamber, as well as the internship of an auditor of the Accounting Chamber at the French SAI was discussed on February 10 during a meeting of the management of the Accounting Chamber with representatives of the multi-sectoral international technical assistance program mAIDan Ukraine (implemented by the French Agency for International Technical Cooperation Expertise France, hereinafter referred to as the Program).
For information. The mAIDan Ukraine program is part of France's technical assistance to Ukraine, aimed at supporting the recovery process and European integration. Today, within the framework of this program, Expertise France is implementing the project "State Audit Service", and a dialogue has also begun on the possibilities of providing assistance to the Accounting Chamber.
The discussion was attended by the Head of the Accounting Chamber Olga Pishchanska, Deputy Head of the Accounting Chamber Serhiy Klyuchka, acting head of the Accounting Chamber Secretary of the Accounting Chamber – Chief of Staff Vasyl Nevydomy, mAIDan Ukraine Program expert Virginie Ma-Dupont and other specialists.
Olga Pishchanska noted that thanks to previous cooperation, Ukrainian auditors are already familiar with the basic principles of the financial control system in France and the distribution of powers between its components.
«An in-depth study of the format and principles of cooperation between financial control bodies of France may to some extent be useful for Ukraine. In particular, in the process of implementing external financial control in accordance with international standards, such experience can be used during audits of local budgets», – noted the Head of the Accounting Chamber.
Vasyl Nevyadomy for his part, emphasized that audits of the use of local budget funds are particularly important given the decentralization reform.
«Cooperation with the French side is also important for us to understand all the possibilities of interaction with local authorities and stakeholders in terms of both the audit of local budgets and infrastructure projects, in particular those implemented with the funds of international donors», – noted Vasyl Nevyadomy.
Separately, during the meeting, the work of the regional courts of auditors of France was discussed. They have significant autonomy, and the Accounting Chamber of Ukraine also plans to develop its divisions in the regions, expanding the range of their tasks and areas of responsibility.
In turn,Virginie Ma-Dupont spoke in detail to the representatives of the Accounting Chamber, in particular, about the organization of relations between the French Court of Auditors and local authorities, as well as about the specifics of local budget audits in her country.
Following the results of the meeting, the mAIDan Ukraine program experts proposed organizing several online meetings with specialists from regional courts of auditors in France to discuss the practice of conducting local budget audits, which can be applied in the work of the Accounting Chamber.
The participants also discussed the details of the upcoming internship of a specialist of the Accounting Chamber at the French Court of Auditors with the possibility of involving him in one of the stages of the local budget audit.
