The Court of Auditors last year performed 32 audit missions in the most important social-economic sectors, at 433 public entities. These resulted in the approval of 36 audit reports. Thus, there were audited the central public authorities and subordinated institutions, local public authorities, state and municipal enterprises and joint stock companies. The Court of Auditors formulated over 1,450 recommendations for the audited institutions and these were 51% implemented. The progress report for 2017 was presented in a meeting of the Parliament’s commission on economy, budget and finance on May 15, IPN reports.

According to the conclusions of the audit report, the identified irregularities in using public funds and public property and those related to the correctness of financial-accounting records were the most serious ones and totaled over 1,100 million lei and 7,778 million lei respectively. Last year the Court issued the law enforcement agencies with findings concerning fraud suspicions identified during 14 audit missions. Four criminal cases were started as a result.

“Our mission last year was to offer an independent and objective assessment, in accordance with the international audit standards of the supreme audit institutions,” said the president of the Court of Auditors Veaceslav Untila.

The fluctuation of the audit personnel was one of the problems faced by the Court last year. This rose to 17.3%. The rise was mainly caused by the irrelevant salaries compared with the complexity of the public audit activity.

In the future, the Court of Auditors will continue to strengthen the capacities to perform audits in accordance with the international standards, to develop the audit capacities of external funds, to implement modern procedures for managing human resources, etc.  

According to the chairman of the commission on economy, budget and finance Stefan Creanga, the new law on the organization and functioning of the Court of Auditors that was adopted by Parliament last yearend and that meets the best international practices will encourage the supreme audit institution’s activity. He voiced hope that the legislative body will soon have a standing public finances control commission that would examine the Court of Auditors’ reports.

The commission on economy, budget and finance took notice of the Court of Auditors’ report. The legislature’s Standing Bureau will decide if this will be presented in Parliament or not.