The President of the Court of Audit, Mr Igor Šoltes, and the First Deputy President, Mr Tomaž Vesel, have attended the V Conference of the EUROSAI (European Organisation of the Supreme Audit Institutions) and the OLACEFS (Latin American and Caribbean Organisation of the Supreme Audit Institutions). The participants of the conference have discussed the following topics: fiscal sustainability, accountability and presentation of accounts.
More than 120 participants from 29 countries have agreed that the sustainability of the government financial position represents an international challenge. While each state must provide for the social security of its citizens, it must also reduce public expenditures and debt. This demand has occurred due to the limited scope of the public finances. The participants also have agreed that certain reforms of the public sector are necessary in order to improve the economic growth and fiscal sustainability. Those reforms are referred to the budget (results based budget), accounting, public management, pension system, education and health management.
The President of the Court of Audit, Mr Igor Šoltes, has pointed out that many financial crises of the 90s of the past century and the demands for better results of the public sector along with the limitations of the public funds and the unchanged living standard opened many issues on the area of public finance management. The two important criteria of the public finance management are transparency and accountability.
The President of the Court of Audit has presented the role of the Supreme Audit Institutions in the development of the public finance sustainability, reforms, in providing for the transparency of the use of public funds and the accountability by informing the public and by developing mechanisms for achieving the set objectives. Furthermore the reforms in accounting are of key importance as the basis for the new public management and for the development of the results based budgeting.
The introduction of the accrual basis of accounting is a lengthy process that demands numerous resources. It is therefore important that the process is implemented efficiently and effectively. The role of every SAI concerned is to promote this process, to offer appropriate recommendations on the planning, implementation and professional solutions (it must pay attention to its own independence), to monitor the realization of the projects, and to audit the financial statements afterwards.
The conference will be concluded on 11 May 2007 by adopting the conclusions and recommendations and by concluding speeches of the President of the INTOSAI, Mr Arpad Kovacs, the Secretary General of the EUROSAI, Mr Ubaldo Nieto de Alba, the Secretary of the OLACEFS, Mr Dani Kuzniecky, and the President of the Portuguese SAI, Mr Guilhermo D'Oliveira Martins.