The Court of Auditors in 2022 will carry out an external public audit in the natural gas sector. A bill proposed by PAS MPs provides that the audit will be conducted at relevant joint stock companies, public law entities and at other legal entities affiliated to them to determine compliance of financial transactions, costs and capital investments, IPN reports.

The audit mission will be conducted with derogation from the law on the organization and functioning of the Court of Auditors and the law on joint stock companies, which provides that the audit can be performed at the entity of public interest and the company in which the state holding exceeds 50% of the share capital. The state holding in the share capital of such companies is under 50% and the Court now has limited powers for conducting an external public audit.

Today the bill was discussed inside the parliamentary commission for public finance control and is to be debated in Parliament. The commission’s deputy chairman Artur Mija said that an external public audit in this sector hasn’t been carried out for 30 years. “Taking into account the declaring of the state of emergency by the Parliament’s decision of October 22 and the fact that the insufficiency of natural gas directly and immediately affects the security of the state and the citizens, increased attention was paid to the financial and corporate management of commercial organizations that work in the natural gas sector. Independent reports and studies show that these companies are managed defectively and this influences the unjustified rise in natural gas rates and the artificial augmentation of the debt owed to external suppliers,” says the note to the bill.

The draft law suggests that the report on the results of the external public audit should be presented to Parliament by October 31, 2022.