Lectures on external audit of judicial authorities: meeting of Olga Pishchanska and Kyrylo Klymenko with heads of courts

30 May 2025

The Audit of the Accounting Chamber — is a partnership support tool aimed at strengthening the efficiency and independence of the judiciary in the face of challenges and transformations. This was emphasized by the Head of the Accounting Chamber Olga Pishchanska during an online lecture organized by the National School of Judges of Ukraine for the chairmen and deputy chairmen of local general, commercial and district administrative courts, courts of appeal, the High Anti-Corruption Court, and the Cassation Courts within the Supreme Court.

Communicating with the judges, the Head of the Accounting Chamber spoke about legislative changes in the activities of the Accounting Chamber, challenges in the work of the judicial system, as well as the general role of external audit in increasing the efficiency of the activities of the judiciary.

As noted by Olga Pishchanska, the judicial system is currently facing several challenges. In particular, the lack of funding hinders the proper logistical support of courts and the digitalization of their activities, while the low level of salaries of court staff and an imperfect system of selecting judges lead to a staff shortage, excessive workload, and delay in the consideration of cases.

The Chairman of the Accounting Chamber also emphasized that the global consequence of these processes is the slowdown of reforms in the field of justice. In particular, the newly created High Court for Intellectual Property is not formally functioning due to the lack of judges.

«External audit — is not only a tool for financial analysis, but also an effective mechanism for strengthening the institutional capacity of the judiciary. Audit allows you to identify systemic problems in the financial, organizational and managerial dimensions, timely respond to risks that may affect the effectiveness of the functioning of courts and create a basis for improving management decisions, contributing to the stability of the judicial system. After all, protecting an impartial and effective judiciary — is protecting democratic values in the state» – summed up the Head of the Accounting Chamber.

During his lecture, member of the Accounting Chamber Kyrylo Klymenko focused on changes in approaches to conducting audits of judicial bodies in connection with European integration processes and bringing the activities of the Supreme Audit Institution of Ukraine into line with international standards.

Kyrylo Klymenko emphasized that external audit contributes to strengthening the independence of judges, as well as the accountability and transparency of bodies that provide organizational and financial support to courts. He noted that the main task of the audit is to find opportunities for improvement and provide recommendations that will help to use available resources in the most optimal way.

«If we do not work on errors, do not improve our activities, but reproduce the same process in the same way, then this leads to inefficient use of limited resources. Auditors help to identify these errors and suggest opportunities for improvement», – noted a member of the Accounting Chamber.

Also Kyrylo Klymenko outlined the main goal of the audit of the organizational and financial support of the activities of local and appellate courts, which the Accounting Chamber has initiated. He announced a survey of judges and heads of court staff on the issues studied within the framework of the audit.

During the question-and-answer sessions that took place after the lectures, the judges were interested in the specifics of conducting new audits of the Accounting Chamber in the field of the judiciary. Head of the Judicial Training Department of the National School of Judges Ivan Balaklytsky thanked the management of the Accounting Chamber for the meaningful speeches. In total, more than 200 listeners attended the lectures.