Today, on June 23, Deputy Auditor General of the State Audit Office Devi Vepkhvadze presented 2015 SAO’s activity report and SAO’s annual report “On 2015 Georgia’s state budget execution” at the Georgian Parliament plenary session.
Findings of the 2015 SAO’s activity, information on audits carried out during the year, identified deficiancies and issued recommendations were presented in the SAO’s report.
At first, SAO’s 2015 achievements were reviewed in the report, namely:
- Aimed at the increasing efficiency of audit activity, IT audit introduction project, which is being implemented by the support of the World Bank, was reviewed;
- Supported by GIZ, within the framework of the Budget and Finance Committee, working group reviewing audit reports, was set up. Mutual cooperation format ensures realization of audit activity findings and enhancement of parliamentatry oversight;
- At the end of 2015, within the framework of the grant allocatted by the Norwegian government, audit management system (AMS), was purchased. This program will simplify audit procedures and will help auditors to properly manage time and improve audit quality.
It should also be noted that in 2015, Georgia was assessed as one of the best countries in the monitoring of political parties but from the budget oversight standpoint, in the “Open Budget Index”, Georgia was included in the list of the world’s best supreme audit institutions.
In the SAO’s report on government’s report “Regarding 2015 state budget annual execution”, systemic deficiencies identified at all major stages of the public sector financial management system carried out as a result of audit and analytical activities and important issues as well as issued relevant recommendations were reviewed in the 2015 budget execution report preparation process. Following issues were also reviewed in the report:
- State budget payment execution tendencies;
- Existed significant deficiencies during budget formation process;
- Analysis of issued salaries, remuneration and bonuses;
- Systemic deficiancies identified during the state procurement management process;
- State financial assets management;
- In the enhancement of foreign liabilities component it was noted that planned spending, within the framework of certain projects funded by foreign lending resources, is being implemented with some delays;
- Significant deficiencies have been taking place in the budget preparation software format, what in its turn, makes difficult and in some cases, becomes impossible to assess efficiency of programs.
According to the SAO’s assessment, for the facilitation of the improvement of financial management system operation of the public sector, it is recommended to take into account those suggestions and comments, which are included in the report.
