Rapport sur le contrôle coordonné des subventions fiscales

Report ID: 113

Le VIe Congrès de l'EUROSAI, qui s'est tenu à Bonn du 30 mai au 2 juin 2005, a traité du contrôle des recettes publiques par les Institutions supérieures de contrôle (ISC). L'analyse des documents nationaux soumis par les membres de l'EUROSAI avant le congrès a montré, entre autres, que les connaissances sur l'efficacité des subventions fiscales sont encore insuffisantes, a noté l'étendue et la complexité de la législation fiscale qui peut conduire à des insuffisances et à des exceptions fiscales et a conclu que les ISC devraient élaborer des conclusions plus fiables sur le volume et la réalisation des objectifs de ces subventions fiscales.

Le Congrès a donc préconisé la réalisation d'un audit coordonné des subventions fiscales, ouvert à tous les membres de l'EUROSAI. A cet effet, un groupe de travail a été créé afin de coordonner la planification de l'audit et d'en établir le contenu et les rubriques. Les Institutions supérieures de contrôle d'Allemagne, de Chypre, du Danemark, de France, de Finlande, de Hongrie, d'Islande, d'Italie, de Lettonie, de Lituanie, de Pologne, de Roumanie, de la Fédération de Russie, de Suède, de Suisse, de la République slovaque, du Royaume-Uni et des Pays-Bas (observateur) ont participé à l'audit.

Les objectifs de l'audit coordonné étaient les suivants
- Améliorer le partage des connaissances,
- Améliorer la communication entre les membres de l'EUROSAI dans des domaines d'intérêt particulier,
- Obtenir des informations sur les meilleures pratiques,
- Renforcer les réseaux informels,

Afin d'obtenir des résultats comparables, une liste de contrôle a été rédigée, portant sur toutes les étapes d'une subvention fiscale, depuis la législation jusqu'au rapport, en passant par la mise en œuvre. En même temps, cette liste de contrôle a constitué le cadre non contraignant d'un audit de la transparence et des rapports. En outre, trois sous-groupes de travail ont été créés pour traiter des subventions fiscales spécifiques : l'impôt sur le revenu des sociétés, la taxe sur la valeur ajoutée et le rapport sur la transparence et les subventions.

A l'issue des travaux d'audit, le groupe de travail est arrivé à la conclusion que, concernant les subventions fiscales, des améliorations étaient nécessaires dans les domaines de la législation, de l'évaluation et de l'établissement de rapports dans tous les Etats participants, afin de créer la transparence globale qu'il juge nécessaire tant pour le législateur que pour le grand public.

Source:https://www.eurosai.org/en/working-groups/historic-working-groups-committees/coordinated-audit-on-tax-subsidies-working-group/index.html

Transregional Programme on Public Debt Management Audit

Report ID: 122

Objective: To enhance both professional staff development and organisational capacity of target SAIs in public debt management audit

Guide for Auditing Public Debt Management

The Guide aims to provide practical procedures to conduct audits on nine specific public debt management topics:

(1) Public debt legal framework,

(2) Organisational arrangement,

(3) Determination of public borrowing needs,

(4) Public debt management strategy,

(5) Borrowing activities,

(6) Public debt information systems,

(7) Debt servicing,

(8) Debt reporting, and

(9) Contingent liabilities, with emphasis on loan guarantees.

The nine topics were those discussed in the PDMA e-learning course, and were selected as topics for pilot audits by 29 participating SAIs in the Programme.

The primary intended users of the Guide are staff in Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) with little or no knowledge of, or experience in public debt auditing.

SAI auditors who are completely new to public debt management auditing are advised to build their understanding of the subject of public debt prior to using this Guide. One option in this regard would be to study the IDI’s training materials on public debt management auditing.

Focusing more in the context of a performance audit, this Guide also provides audit guidance in the context of financial and compliance audit, particularly in the audit planning and reporting phase.

Enforcement of the European Waste Shipment Regulation

Report ID: 132

This cooperative audit on the enforcement of the European Waste Shipment Regulation is based on eight individual national audit reports, carried out by the supreme audit institutions of Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Poland, the Netherlands, Norway and Slovenia. The SAI of the Netherlands coordinated the compilation of the audit findings. The coordinated audit was launched in response to a decision taken by the Contact

Committee of Heads of EU SAIs and was conducted in close collaboration with the EUROSAI Working Group on Environmental Auditing.

About the audit

The objective of this coordinated audit is to improve the enforcement of the EWSR by providing information on the participating countries’ enforcement strategies and performances (in terms of results and the achievement of the desired effect). To achieve this objective, the national audits sought to answer the following questions:

• To what extent do the relevant authorities comply with the requirements arising from the EWSR?

• How do the authorities enforce the EWSR?

• What is known about the effectiveness of the enforcement measures?

This joint report gives insight into the differences among the countries involved, but does not provide systematic benchmarks. The eight national audits were not designed to provide specific benchmarks for the enforcement of the regulation.

Structure of this report

This report consists of five chapters, starting with this introduction, which provides background information on international waste shipments and the EWSR. The second chapter discusses the formal implementation requirements, the classification of waste and the information networks. Chapter 3 examines the enforcement network and provides information on enforcement practices in each of the eight countries. Chapter 4 looks at the way in which infringements of the EWSR are punished. A summary of the conclusions and recommendations is presented in chapter 5.

Implementation of Tasks Related to Environmental Projects and Measures in the Thaya River Basin

Report ID: 144

Cooperation between Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) in conducting environmental audits has become more and more common in recent years for good reason: There are many benefits, for both the institutions and the environment. For the institutions, cooperative audits facilitate mutual sharing and learning, capacity building, networking, and identification of best practices. For the environment, many environmental problems transcend political boundaries. Thus, combining forces through cooperative environmental audits allows SAIs to take a broader view of the situation, to consider the various upstream and downstream impacts of domestic actions, and to benchmark best practices.

There are many models of and approaches to cooperative audits. They are applicable to a variety of situations, including the audit of international and regional environmental agreements, of shared physical resources (for example, watersheds), and of shared environmental problems (for example, domestic waste management). SAIs now have gained considerable experience in what works, what doesn’t work, and how best to ensure success.

The paper entitled Cooperation between Supreme Audit Institutions: Tips and Examples for Cooperative Audits responds to the ongoing demand for information and ideas on how to make cooperation work effectively. Reflecting the real-world experience of practitioners from some 29 SAIs, the paper provides practical advice and tips through each phase of the audit cycle.

While the examples in this paper are drawn from cooperative environmental audits, the tips have been generalized to make them broadly applicable to cooperative audits of any topic and perhaps also to cooperation with local or regional audit institutions. Tip 1 Communicate! is essential advice that readers will find reiterated throughout the paper.

This paper was co-led by the Supreme Chamber of Control of the Republic of Poland and The Netherlands Court of Audit. In particular, I would like to thank Rob de Bakker and Arien Blees-Booij from the Netherlands and Ewa Borkowska-Domanska and Monika Skrzypiec from Poland for all of their hard work and efforts in preparing this document. My thanks also goes to the many other organizations and individuals who contributed to this paper (see Acknowledgments).

I believe this paper will facilitate future cooperation between SAIs and enhance the effectiveness of their initiatives.

Cooperation between Supreme Audit Institutions: Tips and Examples for Cooperative Audits is one of four guidance papers developed by the INTOSAI Working Group on Environmental Auditing (WGEA) in the Work Plan period 2005–2007. The other three papers are:

• Evolution and Trends in Environmental Auditing,

• Auditing Biodiversity: Guidance for Supreme Audit Institutions, and

• The World Summit on Sustainable Development: An Audit Guide for Supreme Audit Institutions.

Readers are encouraged to consult these papers as well as Appendix 4 of this paper for information on other WGEA products and services.  

Audit Parallel on EUROSAI Audit On Climate Change

Report ID: 158

The present audit was carried out on the basis of the Common Position on Cooperation for Coordinated Parallel EUROSAI Audit on Climate Change (hereinafter referred to as the Common Position on Cooperation), signed by the representatives of 10 Supreme Audit Institutions, the members of the EUROSAI Working Group on Environmental Auditing, on 16 January 2009 in Warsaw.

The following Institutions participated in the audit: the Chamber of Accounts of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Audit Office of the Republic of Cyprus, Rigsrevisionen - Denmark, the National Audit Office of Estonia, the Office of the State Comptroller and Ombudsman of Israel, the State Audit Office of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, the Supreme Audit Office of the Republic of Poland, the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation, the Swiss Federal Audit Office and the Accounting Chamber of Ukraine, hereinafter referred to as the Cooperating SAIs. The Supreme Audit Office of the Republic of Poland was the Audit Coordinator.

The aim of the audit was to assess the actions taken in the States of the Cooperating SAIs to implement the provisions of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Kyoto Protocol to this Convention,

Directive 2003/87/EC establishing a scheme for greenhouse gas emission allowance trading within the Community and the requirements of the national legislation, in the scope of:

• The performance of observations on climate change and its effects,

• Actions taken to mitigate climate change,

• Forecasts and assessments of the actual anthropogenic greenhouse gas emission and absorption levels,

• Reporting on the scope of the actions taken and planned to be taken in order to mitigate climate change and the achieved eff ects of these actions.

The present Report consists of three parts:

Part I contains general information on the audit, climate change in Europe, the related international regulations and presentations of the States of the Cooperating SAIs;

Part II contains the main audit findings in the four audited areas (observation, mitigation, monitoring and financing);

Part III contains summaries of national reports on audit findings, along with the assessments from the national audits, prepared by the Cooperating SAIs and provided in this Part as originally submitted.

Part III also includes the Communiqué on the Results of the Coordinated Audit of Air and Ozone

Layer Protection and Implementation of Related International Agreements, and summaries of the national reports on audits, performed by the Supreme Audit Office of the Slovak Republic, the Court of Audit of the Republic of Slovenia, the Supreme Audit Office of the Czech Republic and the Austrian Court of Audit.

The present EUROSAI Audit was performed under the INTOSAI Global Audit on Climate Change.