Joint Report on the Results of the International Coordinated Audit on the Prevention and Consequences Elimination of Floods

This international coordinated audit was carried out as part of the activities of the EUROSAI Working Group on Audit of Funds Allocated to Disasters and Catastrophes. The motivation for its conduction was the results of the Survey carried out in 2015 among the SAI–members and observers of the working group, which was the reason to include such audit in the work plan of the Working group for 2017–2020.

Participants of the International Coordinated Audit on the Prevention and Consequences Elimination of Floods are SAIs of: the Republic of Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of Poland, the Republic of Serbia and Ukraine. The European Court of Auditors and the SAI of the Republic of Turkey, as members of the Working group, also participated in the audit by providing relevant material for the Joint Report. The SAI of Ukraine is the Coordinator of the audit.

During the audit, the SAIs–participants of the international coordinated audit evaluated the effectiveness of flood risk management in the respective river basins of their countries, the legality, timeliness and completeness of the relevant management decisions, as well as the cost-effectiveness and efficiency of the usage of allocated funds.

Participants of the international coordinated audit share the provisions of the INTOSAI Guidance GUID 9000 “Cooperative Audits between SAIs” and identify a decisive factor in cooperative efforts to find a common solution for a specific audit topic, as their countries have similar interests in sphere of flood prevention and its consequences elimination.

The audit confirmed a shared understanding by SAIs of the threats caused by the lack of proper management of flood protection, as well as their willingness to work together to address these challenges.
Participants of the international coordinated audit unanimously state that in the process of managing natural disasters, the amount of money invested in reducing the risk of a catastrophe is the most cost-effective, as proper prevention and preparedness measures can significantly reduce the adverse impact of natural disasters.

The common idea of the SAIs, which have joined forces to participate in this international coordinated audit, is: “It is impossible to fully prevent flooding. However, the proper and timely implementation of preventive measures can significantly mitigate their harmful effects on the environment and save people’s lives”.

The SAIs participating in the international coordinated audit are convinced that the recommendations provided to governments and relevant national authorities to take appropriate measures on improving of flood protection management will help to maximize its effectiveness, especially at the stage of preventing such disasters.

The Supreme Audit Institutions of the Republic of Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of Poland, the Republic of Serbia, the Republic of Turkey, Ukraine and the European Court of Auditors exchanged knowledge and experience to achieve a common goal in conducting an international coordinated audit. The SAIs operated in a spirit of cooperation based on integrity, open communication and professionalism.

The SAIs–audit participants recommend their governments and national authorities to take appropriate measures to create, develop and operate flood forecasting and protection systems.
To this end, it is proposed to the governments and relevant authorities to:

Set up specific policy goals related to flood protection, provide and maintain the link between the goals, actions and funding in the relevant flood protection action plans and programs.
Ensure that program documents governing the implementation of flood protection are consistent with changes in existing national legislation.
Ensure harmonization iof the national laws to the EU legislation, in particular the Floods Directive, in the countries that have signed the Association Agreement.
Ensure co-ordination and cooperation between responsible authorities in conducting of flood protection measures, exchange of necessary data and information between them, and, coordinated flood risk management in cross-border river basins.
Take the necessary steps to develop flood risk management plans, including international, flood vulnerability maps and flood risk maps for significant flood areas and undertake required activities for accounting for water protection facilities.
Ensure control over the implementation of flood risk management plans through quantified performance measures and performance indicators.
Ensure adequate financing of flood protection measures, including transboundary measures on cross-border river basins; eliminate funding gaps, especially at project completion stage; to attract sources of financing alternative to budgetary funds (public-private partnership, credit resources).
Determine the priority of the objects for financing based on objective and relevant criteria.
Develop and implement a methodology of accounting for flood losses in order to effectively plan preventive measures.
Improve flood forecasting system, use geospatial planning methods to manage flood risks.

Strengthen monitoring of deforestation in coastal zones, and include measures to restore forests in river gorges into strategic documents.