First Regional Consultation in the Municipality of Celje
This morning on the premises of the Municipality of Celje (MOC), the Court of Audit of the Republic of Slovenia and MOC organised a regional consultation with mayors of the municipalities, directors of the municipal administrations respectively persons competent for the field of finance in the municipalities of the Celje region.
The consultation aimed at exchanging opinions, positions and questions related to the management of public finance in the municipalities. The consultation was attended by the mayors and representatives of the Municipalities of Vransko, Šmarje pri Jelšah, Bistrica ob Sotli, Rogaška Slatina, Slovenske Konjice, Štore, Kozje, Podčetrtek, Vojnik, Dobrna, Šentjur, Rogatec, Dobje and Laško.
It is the first in the series of regional consultations that the Court of Audit plans to organise with the representatives of all Slovenian municipalities in the year 2011.
Such consultations with municipalities were first organised by the Court of Audit in the years 2007 and 2008. The final report was sent to the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia, the Commission for Public Finance Control, the Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning and two government departments.
The participants were welcomed by Bojan Šrot, Mayor of the Municipality of Celje, who acknowledged the importance of such cooperation with the Court of Audit as part of preventive action and highlighted the problems that municipalities are faced with when implementing increasing obligations imposed by the legislation and applying inconsistent regulations. This was followed by the discussion with Dr Igor Šoltes, President of the Court of Audit, who illustrated the most common findings under local self-government audits and talked about the field of public procurement.
Mojca Planinšek, MSc, Supreme State Auditor, presented the most relevant legal opinions including property leasing, financing of political parties and councillor groups, temporary financing, financing of societies as well as constitution of supervisory committees.
A discussion with the participants followed, highlighting the issues of public infrastructure management, economy of water management, Integrity and Prevention of Corruption Act, sponsorships and Exercising of the Public Interest in Culture Act as well as some other public finance fields.