Transcript New Challenges and Strategy of the Estonian SAO

Audit of the EU Pre-Accession
Funds (PHARE, SAPARD, ISPA)
Eva Lätti
Audit Manager of the Performance
Audit Department The State Audit
Office of Estonia
INTRODUCTION

The objective of the presentation:
to give a short overview of the Estonian
approach to the audit of the preaccession instruments
The amounts of the pre-accession
funds

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State budget for 2001 –
1 985 736 666 EURO
PHARE (budgeted for 2001) - 18 785 625 EURO
ISPA (in average per year) 28 600 000 EURO
SAPARD (in average per year) - 14 300 000 EURO
Pre-accession funds form ca 3.1 % of the annual
state budget.
Auditing of the EU-funds in
Estonia
General principle
 Auditing relationships in the audit of
the EU-funds in Estonia
 Special focus on EU- funds through
cooperation

General principle

During the audits of the State Audit
Office of Estonia, the EU-funds are
covered in our audits in the same
way as the state budget money as
the principles of sound financial
management should be followed for
both
Auditing relationships in the audit
of the EU-funds
The results of the audit of the
Financial Control Department (1)

As a result of their audits they shall:
–
form an opinion as to the authenticity and
comprehensiveness of the reports of the National
Fund and the implementing agency;
The results of the audit of the
Financial Control Department (2)

As a result of their audits they shall:
–
form an opinion as to the adequacy of the internal
control and management system of the National
Fund and the implementing agency, their
capability to ensure the legality and accuracy of
the payments
The results of the audit of the
Financial Control Department (3)

As a result of their audits they shall:
–
provide the National Fund with authorisations to
start, continue or suspend making payments by
the respective implementing agency and the
wrongly paid sums
Special focus on EU- funds
through cooperation

Joining the European Court of Auditors
during their audits in Estonia:
–
at the moment our auditors are assigned to the
ECA audit team leader and follow the ECA’s audit
planning memorandum. They are assessing the
management of PHARE and ISPA funds in the
environment sector
Challenges for the future


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Forming a team who will assess the
administrative capacity of the government
agencies who have an important role in
implementing the acquis;
taking part in the Audit Activities working
group of the EU candidate countries and the
ECA;
training people to perform high quality audits.