The challenges of recommendations follow-up process conducted in the Municipalities and the issues related to the effective public finance management were discussed at the working meeting in Batumi with participation of the State Audit Office and the representatives of the Autonomous Republic of Adjara and Guria region municipalities, Sakrebulos and self-governments.
The main topic of the meeting was the causes of systemic deficiencies referring to infrastructure project management, property inventory and disposal, human resources management, state procurement, etc.
About 30 representatives from Batumi, Khelvachauri, Kobuleti, Keda, Khulo, Shuakhevi, Ozurgeti, Lanchkhuti and Chokhatauri municipalities and City Halls attended the meeting. In 2022-2023, 8 audits were conducted in the municipalities of Adjara A/R and 73 recommendations were issued. 44% of them are fully implemented, 42% - partially implemented and 14% are ongoing.
During the interactive meeting the representatives of SAO with municipalities and City Halls discussed specific cases andthe ways of joint solutions to the recommendations.
The meeting was moderated by Zaza Shekiladze, Deputy Auditor General of the State Audit Office. Kakhaber Kirtava, Head of the Audit Department in the A/R of Adjara, and Giorgi Mamrikishvili, Head of the Self-Government Entities Audit Department, who spoke about the main challenges and recommendations of the conducted audits. Tsotne Karkashadze, Head of the State Budget and Strategic Analysis Department presented the Audit Recommendation Implementation System (aris.sao.ge) to the representatives of municipalities. Irma Gelantia-Akhvlediani, Deputy Head of the Public Internal Control Department of the Ministry of Finance, discussed the role of the Sakrebulos and internal audits in the process of oversight the public finance management. Gela Tsiklauri, Director of the Public Audit Institute, informed about professional development training programs tailored to the needs of municipalities.
