Joint Report of the International Coordinated audit of Chernobyl Shelter Fund

Report ID: 219

On April 26, 1986, the worst accident in the history of civilian nuclear power occurred at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine, where an explosion destroyed the core of reactor Unit 4 containing approximately 200 tons of nuclear fuel. The explosion and heat from the reactor core propelled radioactive material as much as six miles high, where it was then dispersed mainly over 60,000 square miles of Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia. Smaller amounts of radioactive material spread over Eastern and Western Europe and Scandinavia and were even detected in the United States.

The Chernobyl Shelter Fund (CSF) was founded at European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in 1997 aimed at financing Shelter Implementation Plant (SIP).The Fund is guided by the set of rules regarding its resource management. Contributor Governments, mainly of G-7 and European Union, contribute to the Fund. The Assembly of Contributors supervises SIP implementation progress.

The Initial SIP costs were estimated at about USD 758 million (about EUR 585 million 4) in 1997. In 2003 and 2004 technical uncertainties and delays in the SIP fulfilment became apparent, especially with the construction of NSC, which resulted in cost escalation to EUR 840 million. The causes of those cost increases and the resulting need for additional steps to control cost and time overruns were discussed at all level including the Assemblies of Contributors. All G-85 Governments agreed to increase the scale of CSF.

Such increase was tied to the requirements to be fulfilled by Ukraine, including improvement of management, removal of procedural obstacles and timely delivery of Ukraine’s contributions. Thus, as of January 2006 estimated total costs were EUR 955 million and term for SIP completion was extended from 2005 to 2010.

Due to failure in timely realization of SIP, in 2006, the Special Subgroup on the Audit of Natural, Man-caused Disasters Consequences and Radioactive Wastes Elimination of the EUROSAI Working Group on Environmental Auditing decided to conduct an international coordinated audit of the Chernobyl Shelter Fund.

The aim of the audit was the establishment of actual state of affairs regarding legal, organizational and financial support of decommissioning the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant (CNPP) and transforming destroyed CNPP Unit 4 into an environmentally safe system by fulfilling the Shelter Implementation Plan.

Source: http://old.ac-rada.gov.ua/img/files/auditeurosai1.pdf

International Coordinated Audit (Control) of Public Funds, Allocated to prevention and Consequences elimination of Disasters and Catastrophes

Report ID: 250

The International Coordinated Audit (Control) of Public Funds, Allocated to Prevention and consequences Elimination of Disasters and Catastrophes was included into the Work Plan of the EUROSAI Task Force on the Audit of Funds Allocated to Disasters and Catastrophes for 2012-2014, and was conducted by the SAIs of 9 participated countries.

The audit (control) objective was to assess legality and utilization efficiency of the public funds
allocated to establishment, functioning and development of the national system for prevention
and response to natural and man-caused disasters and catastrophes.

This audit also allowed to test Good Practice Recommendations for the Audit of Funds Allocated to Disasters and Catastrophes, which were developed by the Accounting Chamber of Ukraine within the framework of the EUROSAI Task Force and were prepared for approval in 2014.

AFROSAI-e _Collaborative Audit for Integrating Environmental Risks in an Audit at Local Government

Report ID: 263

During the 2015,  AFROSAI-E Governing Board and Technical Update Meetings, the role of SAIs in addressing critical environmental challenges through their day-day audit activities was discussed. They decided to design a simplistic way to use SAIs’ existing financial and human resources to identify possible areas of improvement supported by solution-driven  planning towards environmental focus and decide to conduct an Environmental Risk Project.

The SAIs of South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Botswana, Sierra Leone, Rwanda and Tanzania decided to participate in the program, which comprised, among others, the development of an e-learning programme, in collaboration with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), the execution of parallel audits and the development of a joint publication.

Find attached (in a merged file) the joint publication explaining the project methodology, as well as the  AUDIT REPORT ON MANAGEMENT OF SOLID WASTE IN HUYE DISTRICT – 2016 preparared by SAI Ruanda, as a result of the audit conducted in the framework of the Project.

Source: https://afrosai-e.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Integrating-Environmental-Audit-Risks-in-Audit-at-LG-level-Brochure1_00.pdf

REPORT OF THE REVIEW OF HIGH QUALITY PERFORMANCE AUDITING IN THE PACIFIC

Report ID: 266

During 2016 PASAI undertook a review of the performance auditing capacity of its members, in particular the capacity building benefit gained through the Cooperative Performance Audit (CPA) program.

The first objective of the review was to follow up and analyse the impact on the SAIs that participated in the first five cooperative performance audits led by PASAI. The benefits had been evaluated since 2010 through PASAI’s after action reporting process. However, a review was required to capture and consolidate this information and to ensure its currency.

Within the CPA Program, PASAI has conducted cooperative performance audits and training for PASAI members since 2009 with the objective of enhancing performance auditing capacity:

CPA 1 Solid Waste Management  2010*

CPA 2 Access to Safe Drinking Water 2011*

CPA 3 Managing Sustainable Fisheries 2012*

CPA 4 Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risks Reduction 2013/14*

CPA 5 Public Debt Management 2015*

For SAIs, the benefits of engaging in cooperative performance audits include facilitating mutual sharing and learning, capacity building, networking, and identifying and adopting good audit practices.  Among other interesting topics, the report addresses the results of the impact evaluation of PASAI Cooperative Performance Audits (CPA).

Source: https://www.pasai.org/review-high-quality-performance-audits-pacific

* This report is available on this virtual catalogue.

Emissions trading to limit climate change: Does it work?

Report ID: 417

The Supreme Audit Institutions play an important accountability role by reporting to parliaments on the efficient, effective and cost-effective implementation of, amongst other things, environmental and energy policies. Climate change is considered by both United Nations (UN) and EU as one of the biggest environmental, economic and social challenges, and needs to be addressed in a coordinated effort at an international level. Emissions trading is a key policy instrument in meeting national and the Kyoto Protocol emissions targets in a cost-effective way. The implementation of the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) and the project-based mechanisms under the Kyoto Protocol (the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and Joint Implementation (JI)) have been a huge administrative undertaking and entail new tasks and roles for governments and companies. There are potential risks related to the implementation of these systems as well as to their effectiveness. The aim of the cooperative audit has been to assess the trustworthiness, reliability and effectiveness of the EU ETS and project-based mechanisms under the Kyoto Protocol. This report draws on findings gained from individual audit reports from seven countries in the years 2008–2012.