Costs of control

Report ID: 166

Background

In 2000, the Contact Committee of the heads of the SAIs of the EU Member States and the ECA (Contact Committee) set up a Working Group to carry out an exploratory survey on EU Structural Funds. A questionnaire was sent to the SAIs to gain an understanding of how these funds were controlled and managed by the various Member States and to identify possible risk areas. The Working Group reported its findings from this work to the Contact Committee in November 2002.

The Contact Committee subsequently approved three parallel audits. The first of these examined the application of the regulations to ensure that all Member States implement independent checks on 5 per cent of expenditure and had established appropriate audit trails to support transactions. The final report on the review was presented to the December 2004 Contact Committee.

The second parallel audit involved a review of the processes in place for identifying, reporting and following up on Irregularities. The final report on that review was presented to the December 2006 Contact Committee.

As third parallel audit the Working Group carried out a review focused on “Performance (output/effectiveness) of the Structural Funds programmes in the areas of employment and/or environment”. The final report on that review was presented to Contact Committee in December 2008.

Parallel Audit on railway construction Zalalovo Bajansenye - Hodo Murska Sobota

Report ID: 189

The Hungarian-Slovenian railway link - between the Hungarian Zalalövő and the Slovenian Muraszombat (Murska Sobota) - was built between 1999 and 2001 as part of the V. European transit corridor.

Since the two countries adopted an agreement on co-operation when planning and realising the investment, in 2001 the Supreme Audit institutions of Slovenia and Hungary decided to carry out a parallel audit of the investment.

Both supreme audit institutions reviewed apart from regularity of planning the investment public procurement process and financing the investment, also the ecological aspect of railway construction and other impacts of the investment.

The joint report presents the activities referred to railway construction undertaken by both countries and it will show some comparable audit results (data on railway construction costs and the answer to the question: which country was more cost efficient), and present an assessment of effectiveness of the investment referred to achievement of planned objectives.

Source: https://docplayer.hu/10411470-Audit-report-on-railway-construction-zalalovo-bajansenye-hodos-murska-sobota.html

Audit on the conservation of biodiversity on the area of the planned regional parks Sne?nik and Koevsko Kolpa and in Risnjak National Park

Report ID: 191

In the recent decades we witnessed the reduction of biodiversity and landscape diversity due to negative impacts on the animal and plant species, their habitats and habitat types. Therefore the reduction of the current rate of biodiversity loss at global, regional and national levels is an important step in the conservation and protection of biodiversity.

The countries that are aware of the importance of the conservation of biological diversity have agreed to implement the Convention on Biological Diversity. By signing the Convention they have decided to build up national strategies, plans and programmes in order to provide for the conservation and sustainable use of the biodiversity. For the conservation of biodiversity, i.e. »in situ «conservation, the Convention on Biological Diversity stresses the development of protected areas such as national, regional and landscape parks where the conservation of ecosystems, species and habitats is of high importance.

Croatia and Slovenia are countries with relatively high levels of the biodiversity; their biodiversity index (NBI) ranks them in the first quarter of the European countries. On the territories of Croatia and Slovenia there are wild animals that belong to the endangered European species, among them there are three large carnivores: brown bear, wolf and lynx. Despite the positive biodiversity situation both countries ratified the Convention on Biological Diversity in 1996 and agreed to implement its objectives in order to provide for the efficient protection of biodiversity.

The Supreme Audit Institutions of the two neighbouring countries decided to contribute to the implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity by auditing the establishment or management of the protected areas and by auditing the efficiency of the implementation of the measures for the conservation of biodiversity.

Because the audit findings and the conclusions were comparable, the SAIs published a joint audit report on the protected areas; i.e. Risnjak National Park in Croatia and planned regional parks Snežnik and Kočevsko Kolpa in Slovenia. The areas included in the audit are mainly covered by forests. The forests of Snežnik and Javornik linked with forests of Kočevje and Gorski Kotar com Europe. This is also the habitat of the three large carnivores.

The SAIs assessed the appropriateness of the institutional framework for the conservation and protection of biodiversity and the efficiency of the establishment or management of the protected areas. The special focus was placed on the implementation of the measures for the protection of the large carnivores that exist in those forests. When the audits were completed they issued national audit reports that are available on the web sites of the SAIs.

The audit of the Slovenian SAI included the period from 1996 to the end of 2005 and was implemented at the Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food and the Forestry Institute of Slovenia. The audit of the Croatian SAI included the period from 2003 to the end of 2005 and was implemented at the Ministry of Culture, the National Nature Protection Service, the Public Institution Risnjak National Park and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water management.

This report presents the common audit findings, recommendations and summaries of the most important findings. The Appendix includes the explanations of the used terminology.

Control of structural funds (RiR 2004:29)

Report ID: 203

Under programperioden 2000–2006 gör EU-kommissionen en översyn av strukturfondernas regelverk. Flertalet av de nationella revisionsmyndigheterna inom EU har genomfört en samordnad granskning under 2003–2004 av kontrollen och styrningen av strukturfonderna. Sverige har valt att granska Växtkraft Mål 3 och Mål 2 Öarna. Denna rapport redovisar de viktigaste slutsatserna som Riksrevisionen dragit för svenskt vidkommande utifrån den gjorda granskningen.

Riksrevisionens slutsatser bygger på en bedömning av kontrollverksamheten vad gäller följsamheten till gällande regelverk samt visa effektivitetsaspekter. En slutsats är att kontrollverksamheten fungerar I förhållande till de regelverk som finns. Den granskade kontrollverksamheten fokuserar på följsamhet avseende lagstiftning och regelverk samt tillförlitligheten i projektens ekonomiska redovisningar. Däremot är den i dag inte utformad så att det är möjligt att fånga upp effektiviteten I förhållande till programmens konkreta mål.

Riksrevisionen bedömer också att de valda organisatoriska lösningarna är komplexa, vilket skapar en risk för såväl ineffektiva controller som dålig kostnadseffektivitet. Riksrevisionen vill även peka på behovet av att kontrollverksamheten och ansvarsfördelningen mellan ansvariga myndigheter läggs fast redan vid programperiodens början.

Riksrevisionen rekommenderar att regeringen införlivar dessa slutsatser i arbetet med att utforma den svenska förvaltningsorganisationen inför kommande programperiod.

The central Government?s actions for sustainable fisheries (RiR 2008:23)

Report ID: 204

The overcapacity of the fishing fleet is an important reason why several fish stocks are overfished today. This means that fishing must be reduced to more sustainable levels to give fish stocks a chance to recover.

Sweden’s fisheries policy is part of the EU Common Fisheries Policy (CFP).

The objectives of fisheries policy and the legislation governing it have changed in recent decades. While the objectives in the past used to be geared mainly towards development of the industry, they are nowadays designed to ensure a long-term sustainable development: economically, socially and environmentally. The objectives of this legislation are to ensure the viability of the fisheries sector, so that fishermen can earn a living; to promote employment in small-scale coastal fisheries; and to stop overfishing that threatens fish stocks.

The overall orientation of the CFP also entails a requirement for the EU Member States to apply the precautionary approach in taking measures designed to protect and conserve living aquatic resources, to provide for their sustainable exploitation and to minimise the impact of fishing activities on marine eco-systems.

Riksrevisionen (the Swedish National Audit Office, SNAO) has examined whether the action taken by the Swedish central-government sector has been effective in promoting the intentions of the legislation governing fisheries policy and whether the Government and the various government agencies have fulfilled their obligations in the field of fisheries policy as laid down in that legislation.

The SNAO’s general conclusion is that, overall, the action taken has been ineffective. In fact, Sweden is moving away from the objectives in several material respects even though the problems concerned have been known for a long time, many policy instruments are being used and public spending for this purpose is high. The Government and the government agencies have also failed to ensure full compliance with legislation.

Compliance with the economic objective of a viable fisheries sector is deteriorating. A large proportion of commercial fishermen are experiencing a reduction in profitability, and the level of net profit for the fisheries sector as a whole has fallen strongly in recent years. Compliance with the social objective of promoting employment in small-scale coastal fisheries is also deteriorating.

The number of days spent at sea in the coastal-fisheries sector has fallen from just under 78,000 in 2002 to just under 62,000 in 2007. And the objectives relating to an environmentally sustainable development are also not being met.

According to reports on the environmental objectives set by the Riksdag (parliament), the situation of several fish stocks is critical; in certain cases the situation has grown worse. What is more, the relative size of stocks of different species has changed considerably, which may have an impact on the maritime eco-system as a whole.

The SNAO’s audit is part of a joint Baltic audit. The supreme audit institutions of Denmark, Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Russia and Finland are conducting parallel audits of the state of marine life in the Baltic Sea. The Danish national audit office (Rigsrevisionen) will compile a joint Baltic report to be published in February 2009.