Implementation of the Rail Baltica Project Cooperative Audit

Report ID: 252

In 2014, the governments of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania established the Rail Baltica joint venture—an equally-shared endeavor ratified in a 2017 intergovernmental agreement. Rail Baltica, to be delivered by 2026, is the largest railway infrastructure project in the region and aims to integrate the Baltic States with the European railway network.

In 2016, the SAIs of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania signed a Memorandum of Understanding to monitor the development and implementation of this unique and unprecedented project.

The audit focused on project governance, internal control system operations, as well as long term financial resource availability. Because the audit was based on a forward-looking approach, the audit team looked to analyze particular conditions, such as assuring an effective, economic procurement and contract management framework was established, functioning and able to address any deficiencies found during the audit.

Fieldwork began in 2018, and the audit team, consisting of at least two auditors from each SAI, examined the audit questions and criteria and agreed on main conclusions, which became the audit report’s basis. A steering committee (one representative per SAI) was instituted to decide on any significant issues arising during the audit.

Each SAI separately performed a quality control check at the audit’s end but jointly drafted the final report, which was electronically signed by all Auditors General and simultaneously published in all three Baltic States.

The joint audit led to recommendations that will improve the Rail Baltica project’s governance, operations and financial planning, and the SAIs of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania will continue the already established cooperation to jointly monitor audit recommendation implementation.

Source: https://www.eurosai.org/en/databases/audits/Implementation-of-the-Rail-Baltica-project/

Joint Report on Parallel Audits of Expenditure on the Construction of the Motorway Prague – Dresden

Report ID: 276

In 2005 and 2006, the two supreme audit institutions of Germany and the Czech Republic conducted parallel audits of expenditure on the construction of the motorway Prague – Dresden (D 8 motorway in the Czech Republic and the A 17 motorway in the Federal Republic of Germany).

The motorways are connected by a border bridge co-financed by the two countries. By working together SAI Germany was able to audit in depth the efficiency of the funds used for building the border bridge. As a result of working closely SAI Czech Republic  was furnished for comparative purposes with the necessary data of German cost levels of bridges and tunnels.

As part of the joint audit effort motorway bridges on the D 8 and A 17 were compared based on the prices per square metre of area of the bridge structure. The statistical analysis of prices made it possible to identify bridges that came at a high cost per square metre. This analysis revealed that the border bridge was the most expensive bridge as compared to other large bridges having a length of over 100 metres. The price increase could also be attributed to the delays occurred in the tender procedure.

When auditors analysed the costs of tunnel structures they found that the prices of tunnels are considerably higher on the D 8 motorway than the prices of comparable tunnels in Germany.

Benefits
The cooperation achieved the objectives of both audit institutions. The two supreme audit institutions developed a database of the prices of bridges and tunnels that can be relied on in future audits. 

SOURCE: https://www.nku.cz/assets/publications-documents/other-publications/paralelni-kontroly-dalnice-praha-drazdany.pdf

Auditing European added value — a case study based on a joint audit of the Rail Baltica project

Report ID: 354

Based on the input from the audit teams from the Supreme Audit Institutions of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia that participated in the Cooperative Audit to the Implementation of the Rail Baltica Projec, Urmet Lee, Director, and Jüri Kurss, Senior Advisor, officers from th  e National Audit Office of Estonia prepared a case study. In the case study the author  share their experiences of applying the EU added value (EAV)concept, a posteriori, to the joint audit.

For the purpose of their article, they decided to look into the question of whether the information gathered and the findings determined in the course of the joint audit of the Rail Baltica project would allow identification of the extent to which EAV has been /is being created or (possibly even unintentionally) jeopardised. They conducted a small case study and carried out a set of written interviews in August 2020 with the RBTF audit team leaders of the three Baltic SAIs. 

Find attached the case study published in the ECA Journal (Source: https://medium.com/ecajournal/auditing-european-added-value-a-case-study-based-on-a-joint-audit-of-the-rail-baltica-project-561788f0ea35)

To know the experience of the cooperative audit to the Rail Baltica project read the joint report in this catalogue: https://intosai-cooperativeaudits.org/catalog/report/implementation-of-the-rail-baltica-project-cooperative-audit

Auditoría Coordinada sobre Obras Viales - Resumen Ejecutivo

Report ID: 388

El documento consolida los principales resultados y oportunidades de mejora identificadas en la Auditoría Coordinada sobre Obras Viales realizada en el marco del Grupo de Trabajo de Auditoría de Obras Públicas (GTOP) de la Organización Latinoamericana y del Caribe de Entidades Fiscalizadoras Superiores (OLACEFS). Esta auditoría se realizó con el propósito de evaluar, por medio de auditorías de cumplimiento, la calidad de obras viales de construcción y mantenimiento de once países: Brasil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, México, Paraguay, Perú y República Dominicana.

La auditoría coordinada tuvo como objetivo evaluar, por medio de revisiones de cumplimiento, la calidad de las obras viales de construcción y mantenimiento bajo la administración directa del gobierno, abarcando desde los estudios preliminares hasta la ejecución de la obra. Debido de la participación de diversos países en la auditoría, fue necesario emplear criterios de auditoría que fueran transversales y comunes al objeto auditado. Además, se observó que la legislación y las normas técnicas aplicables
a las obras viales en los diversos países, aun cuando tienen muchas similitudes entre ellas, también son ricas en diferencias.

El informe consolidado completo también está disponible en: https://intosai-cooperativeaudits.org/catalog/report/auditora-coordinada-de-obras-viales

Fuente: www.olacefs.com/auditorias-coordinadas/