The State Audit Office has received the highest international evaluation in the professional and organizational development.
The professional and organizational development of the State Audit Office (2018-2022) was assessed with 3.4 points out of the maximum 4 points with the SAI-PMF indicators.
Supreme Audit Institutions Performace Measurement Framework (SAI-PMF) assassment has been carried out with the support of the SIGMA project of the European Union and Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
Auditor General Irakli Mekvabishvili presented the results of the international assessment of the State Audit Office (SAI-PMF) and the implementation of the strategic plan to the representatives of the Parliament, the Government, international and non-governmental organizations.
“The primary achievement of the SAO is international evaluations and international recognition in all directions. With full responsibility I can tell that the institutional development of the State Audit Office corresponds to the level of the supreme audit institutions of the EU countries. The aim of aligning with the EU standards has been fully met”, said the Auditor General Irakli Mekvabishvili.
According to the Chairman of the Parliament, Shalva Papuashvili, the State Audit Office deserves the highest scores in all objective evaluations. The Audit Office is one of the important tools for the Parliament to oversight public finances. “It is particularly important that, on the one hand, the State Audit Office is very professional and independent, and on the other hand, the Parliament is ready for the audit report hearings with respective professionalism,” Shalva Papuashvili stated at the presentation of the report.
“First of all, we are cautious of the independence of the State Audit Office, and secondly, we ensure high-quality parliamentary supervision. That is exactly the reason for existance of the Working Group within the Finance and Budget Committee, reviewing audit reports received by the Parliament from the State Audit Office,” said Irakli Kovzanadze, Chairman of the Finance and Budget Committee at the event.
SAI-PMF is the only independent, professional and, simultaneously, complex mechanism that evaluates both audit and non-audit activities of supreme audit institutions, legal framework, degree of independence and mandate, internal governance and ethics, communication with the key stakeholders and human resource management.
The event was hosted at the Wyndham Grand Tbilisi Hotel, with the support of the European Union and the World Bank Economic Governance and Fiscal Accountability (EGFA) Technical Assistance Project.
The European Union project (EGFA) provides technical assistance to the SAOG to strengthen the independence and capacity of external audit through improving existing legal framework and professional development of employees. The project aims to support SAOG to conduct revenue audits, audit of Government consolidated accounts prepared in accordance with IPSAS and subnational government (local self-government) audits.
