Cooperation between the Republic of Slovenia and the Russian Federation in the field of culture, science and education

Report ID: 287

In order to evaluate the effectiveness of their Governments in meeting the objectives set in the Agreements in the Field of Culture, Science and Education, in the period from 1 January 2010 to 31 December 2019, the Court of Audit of Slovenia and the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation, conducted a parallel audit.

The audit objective was to express an opinion on the effectiveness of the auditees, namely the Government, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport, in meeting the objectives set in the Agreement on cooperation and the Agreement on centres (audit field). In order to be able to express the opinion, the key audit question was posed, whether the objectives set in the Agreement on cooperation and the Agreement on centres were met. The answer to the key audit question was given by answering the following sub-questions: ·

• Was planning and monitoring of cooperation in the field of culture, science and education appropriate?
• Were objectives set in Agreements and defined in programmes pertaining to the field of culture met?
• Were objectives set in Agreements and defined in programmes pertaining to the field of science and education met.

Source: http://www.rs-rs.si/en/audits-auditing/audit-archive/audit/cooperation-between-the-republic-of-slovenia-and-the-russian-federation-in-the-field-of-culture-sci/

Parallel audit on Contribution of the Structural Funds to the Europe 2020 Strategy in the areas of Employment and/or Education

Report ID: 288

In 2015, the Contact Committee of the heads of the Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) of the Member States of the European Union and the European Court of Auditors mandated the Working Group on Structural Funds to continue its review of issues relating to Structural Funds, more specifically, to carry out a parallel audit on the ‘Contribution of Structural Funds to the Europe 2020 Strategy in the areas of education and employment’.

A parallel audit was carried out by the SAIs of the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, and the Slovak Republic. The European Court of Auditors and the SAI of Bulgaria acted as observers. The Core Group was chaired by the German SAI, with Malta and the Netherlands as members.  

The parallel audit was carried out in order to examine whether the Structural Funds’ Operational Programmes (OPs) provide the necessary framework to meet the goals of the Europe 2020 Strategy and whether funding contributes to these goals. It focused on the audited OPs identified by the participating SAIs, as well as a selection of approved projects that were directly related to education and employment. The comparison of the national results was intended to establish similarities or differences across the Member States, as well as to identify good practice examples.

In conclusion, the participating SAIs concur that OPs provide the necessary basis to support the achievement of Europe 2020 Headline Targets in the areas of employment and education. However, at this point it is too early to confirm that the implementation of OPs in projects effectively contributes to these goals as expected. 

Source: https://www.bundesrechnungshof.de/en/veroeffentlichungen/products/sonderberichte/pdf-ab-2015/2017-special-report-parallel-audit-on-contribution-of-the-structural-funds-to-the-europe-2020-strategy-in-the-areas-of-employment-and-or-education-pdf