CIS Audit Institutions discuss inspection quality assessment

The 17th session of the CIS Council of Heads of Supreme Audit Institutions kicked off in Baku on September 5.

The two-day event will see heads of audit institutions of CIS countries to assess the quality of inspections conducted by these bodies.

Chairman of Chamber of Accounts of Azerbaijan Vugar Gulmammadov told reporters that the main topics of discussion at the session are the assessment of economic, social and administrative efficiency of the financial control bodies, as well as the definition of the system of indicators and the unification of this system in the CIS.

Heads and members of Supreme Audit Institutions of seven CIS countries – Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Moldova, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, as well as, Turkey as an invited party take part in the sessions.

Gulmammadov further added that the Chamber of Accounts of Azerbaijan has started to develop a new strategic development plan for 2018-2020.

He said that the Chamber will try to identify specific goals, as well as the criteria, by which it will be possible to assess the extent to which these goals are achieved, Trend reports.

"We try to expand the scope of public funds related to control activities. For example, from 2014 to 2016 this figure was 3.5 billion manats ($2.06 billion), 4.2 billion manats ($2.5 billion) and 5.6 billion manats ($3.3 billion), respectively. Our goal is to achieve a minimum (50 percent) in the extent of the state budget's coverage of the control specified in the report on the evaluation of public expenditure and financial accountability (PEFA), and surpass this figure,” Gulmammadov underlined.

He went on to say that since 2015, the Chamber of Accounts has started the process of classifying violations and shortcomings and in 2016 grouped the shortcomings according to the primary prepared classifier of violations and shortcomings.

“We analyzed the experience of other countries, especially the experience of the Russian Federation and Kazakhstan, and developed tour own information base,” he said.

In turn, Tatiana Golikova, the head of the Account Chamber of Russia, informed that the Accounts Chambers of Azerbaijan and Russia will adopt cooperation program for 2018-2021.

“Currently, we are discussing possible prospects for cooperation in 2018-2021. This program will cover joint control activities between the countries' counting chambers,” Golikova noted.

She underlined that in 2015, the sides signed an agreement on cooperation, adding that cooperation between Azerbaijan and Russia is quite fruitful.

The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is free association of sovereign states formed in 1991 by Russia and 11 other republics that were formerly part of the Soviet Union. The CIS’s functions are to coordinate its members’ policies regarding their economies, defense, immigration policies, environmental protection, and law enforcement.

The CIS united Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine. However, in 2008 Georgia withdrew its membership.

A meeting of the International Coordination Council of Banking Associations of the CIS, Central and Eastern Europe will be held in Baku on October 26.

Baku will also host the next meeting of the CIS Interstate Council for Emergencies of Natural and Technogenic Character will be held in Baku.