Coordinated audit of the International Biosphere Reserve Eastern Carpathians
Report ID: 258
The International East Carpathians Biosphere Reserve, similarly to other biosphere reserves, should meet the criteria and functions specified by the UNESCO and included in the Statutory Framework, and should be directed by the guidelines for actions specified by the UNESCO in the Seville Strategy and the Pamplona Recommendations.
Between 2014 and 2015, as part of the activities of the EUROSAI WGEA, the SAIs of Poland (Audit Coordinator), Slovak Republic and Ukraine decided to perform a parallel audit to evaluate the activities carried out on the territory of the International Biosphere Reserve of the Eastern Carpathians for their National and Landscape Parks which form the reserve on the Slovak, Ukrainian and Polish side and ensure implementation of the objectives, for which the biosphere reserve has been established.
The inspection consisted of the following issues:
• activity of the national authorities, related to the functioning of the Reserve and the entities it incorporates, including international cooperation;
• public funds intended for the functioning of the IECBR and for the functioning of the entities it incorporates, as well as the manner in which these funds are to be used;
• implementation of the provisions included in the regulations and other official documents concerning the functioning of the Reserve and entities it incorporates.
These issues were included in the “Joint inspection areas”, and each Party incorporated them for implementation within the national inspections.
Period subject to the inspection: Years 2012–2016.
Inspections – at the same time in Poland, Slovakia and Ukraine – have been conducted in the first half of 2017.
The objectives of the International East Carpathians Biosphere Reserve are being implemented, but it is not the Reserve that implements projects in its area – the parks that form theReserve perform statutory tasks resulting from national regulations and not specified as tasks of the biosphere reserve.
Supreme audit institutions of Slovakia, Ukraine and Poland, on the basis of the results of parallel audits, state that for proper determination – and effective implementation – of the common strategy of the Reserve, common priorities and objectives, it is necessary to take action by the competent authorities of the three countries to conclude an intergovernmental agreement in on the functioning of the Reserve.