The audit of EU Regional Fund projects focused on the environment and environmentally friendly energy

Report ID: 45

1. This report concerns a coordinated audit performed by National Audit Office of Denmark (Rigsrevisionen) and the Gdansk Regional Branch of the Supreme Audit Office of the Republic of Poland (NIK) on the EU Regional Funds projects focused on the environment and environmentally friendly energy for the programme period 2007-2013.

2. The report contains information about programmes co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) including their administration, control follow-up, and how they are organised in Denmark and the Pomorskie Voivodship (region). The report is based on information gathered from national audits, the internet and other open sources.

3. In February 2010, Rigsrevisionen and the NIK engaged in a coordinated audit of environmental projects accepted to receive grants from the ERDF. The objective of the cooperation was for both Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) to gain comparable knowledge about the regional fund and find out whether administration and management of regional fund projects focused on the environment and environmentally friendly energy were adequate in the two countries. This was done on the basis of samples from environmental projects
accepted to receive grants from the ERDF in the period 2007-2009.

4. Furthermore, the purpose of conducting the audit as a coordinated audit was to identify examples of ‘good practice’ on the basis of the audit findings to the benefit of both SAIs and the administrations in the two countries.

5. Rigsrevisionen and the NIK have each performed the audit relating to Denmark and the Pomorskie Voivodship, respectively. These audits have been reported separately to the administrations in the two countries.

6. On the basis of these reports, this joint report with examples of “good practice” has been drawn up. The results of the Danish audit, the conclusions of the joint audit and the examples
of ‘good practice’ will form part of Rigsrevisionen’s report to the Danish parliament on
the audit of EU funds for 2009 while the findings of the Polish audit were included in the information
on the audit results published by the NIK.

Auditing Investments of TEN-T Priority Project 6

Report ID: 83

In 2008,  the Contact Committee of the Heads of the Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) of the European Union endorsed the execution of a co-ordinated performance audit activity – of a cross-border nature, involving several Member States – related to the utilisation of European Union funds allocated for the realization of investment projects focusing on the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T).The estimated value of the entire TEN-T Priority Project 6 is 60.8 billion Euros and is the largest of the thirty TEN-T Priority Projects according to its value.

The Supreme Audit Institutions of Slovenia, Hungary and Italy participated in the cooperative audit.

The audit objective was to evaluate:

1. whether the respective transport policies in the countries of participating SAIs are in line with the principles of the community transport policy and whether they define a demand for the modernisation of railway transport in relation to TEN-T Priority Project 6 and corridor 5;
2. whether the development of railway lines financed by European Union funds – taking into account the principles of the respective national and community transport policy – is effectively and efficiently implemented on the line of the TEN-T priority project 6 and Trans-European transport corridor 5;
3. whether the system set up for preparation and realisation of the selected projects effectively ensures the implementation of the railway network and related infrastructure developments concerning corridor 5 in the participating countries;
4. whether the selected project has achieved/ will achieve its objectives defined in the community and national strategies.

The audit focused on two already completed and two still running railway section investments that are/were financed by European Union funds. Within the framework of the audit, each SAI audited its own railway section. The selection of the railway section, or within this railway section, the selection of a project or projects laid with the respective SAIs.

To ensure a coherent approach, all SAIs followed the approved audit plan as close as possible, particularly with regard to the following main question: did the preparation process and the realisation of the TEN-T project selected to be audited efficiently serve the time-proportional implementation of the European Union’s and national transport policy, as well as the utilisation of available resources? The audit focused on the period 2000 –2010.

Source: https://www.asz.hu/storage/files/files/Angol_portal/coordinated_audit_reports/report_on_auditing_investments_of_ten_t_priority_project_6.pdf?download=true

Pacific Regional Report of Access to Safe Drinking Water Report of the Cooperative Perform Audit: Access to Safe Drinking Water

Report ID: 236

This report provides a regional overview of the process and outcomes of the Cooperative Performance Audit in the Pacific region on access to safe drinking water. The report records the achievements against Pacific Regional Audit Initiative (PRAI) objectives, including building performance auditing capacity within PASAI (see Appendix A), and the lessons learned from the second cooperative audit. In addition the high level findings, about access to safe drinking water in the Pacific island countries/states that were the focus of the audit, are presented.

Ten PASAI member audit offices took part in the audit: Cook Islands, the states of Kosrae and Yap of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), Fiji, Kiribati, Palau, PICT 1, Samoa, PICT 2 and Tuvalu. Of the SAIs participating in the second cooperative audit, seven had participated in the first cooperative audit and three were new to the cooperative performance audit approach, the states of Kosrae and Yap of FSM and Kiribati.

The audit reports of the following SAIs are now in the public domain: Cook Islands, Fiji, the states of Kosrae and Yap of FSM, Kiribati, Palau, Samoa, and Tuvalu. Two additional SAIs participated in the cooperative audit. However, their reports have not yet been released and because of confidentiality issues the individual country reports cannot be identified in this regional report. As a result, when cross-country comparisons are made in this report, these Pacific island countries will be referred to as PICT 1 and PICT 2.

Key Findings

The main findings from each of the three lines of enquiry are noted below.

• The overall finding on the first line of enquiry is that most of the ten PICTs have legal and policy frameworks in place but not a single, overarching framework.
• The overall finding on the second line of enquiry is that legal and policy frameworks have not been effectively implemented in most of the ten audited countries/states.
• The overall finding on the third line of enquiry is that there are weaknesses in monitoring systems and performance management frameworks.

COORDINATED PERFORMANCE AUDIT ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS FRAMEWORK CONVENTION ON CLIMATE CHANGE

Report ID: 256

Due to the serious environmental situation and high vulnerability of countries in the region,  the SAIs of Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Paraguay and Peru, members of the OLACEFS Technical Commission on ENVIRONMENT (COMTEMA) agreed in 2009 to perform a coordinated audit on climate change.

The audit had as general bbjective to assess the performance of governmental bodies responsible for implementing the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in the countries of the region.

The specific objectives of the coordinated audit were:

- Examine the compliance with the commitments established in the United Nations Framework  Convention on Climate Change regarding the implementation of governmental policies, plans, programs and actions.

- Determine whether governments have developed appropriate mitigation strategies and plans for complying with the commitments of the Convention and evaluate the progress attained.

- Determine whether governments have developed adaptation strategies and plans related to vulnerability assessment to the impacts of climate change and whether policy instruments have been implemented in response to risks identified.

The audit took place between 2009 and 2011. It followed the guidelines for cooperative audits of the Working Group on Environmental Auditing of the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (WGEA-INTOSAI). Hence, there were individual audit teams and individual reports in each SAI, but a common research framework. Main sources of audit criteria come from articles 4 and 12 of UNFCCC and article 12 of Kyoto Protocol.

The findings of the coordinated audit indicate progress in the implementation of UNFCCC commitments and point out aspects to improve, especially in relation to the efforts and measures towards the reduction of vulnerability in natural and anthropogenic systems facing current and potential effects of climate change.

Joint report on the results of the coordinated parallel audit on protection of the Black Sea against pollution

Report ID: 268

The initiative of conducting the Coordinated Parallel Audit on Protection of the Black Sea against Pollution was introduced by the Accounting Chamber of Ukraine during the XII INTOSAI Working Group on Environmental Auditing meeting, that was held on January 25-29, 2009 in Doha, State of Qatar.

In May 2010, the SAIs of  Republic of Turkey, Republic of Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, Russian Federation and Georgia decided to carry out a coordinated audit of Protection of the Black Sea against Pollution.

The audit objective was to assess the implementation of commitments resulting from international agreements and collaborative projects on prevention of disasters and catastrophes and pollution of the Black Sea marine environment as well as to monitor and assess the efficiency while utilizing the public funds allocated to this end.

According to the report the cooperation was based on the rules contained in the official publication by the INTOSAI WGEA titled “Cooperation between SAIs, Tips & Examples for Cooperative Audits”, approved in 2007 at the INTOSAI WGEA Meeting.

Source: 

https://rp.gov.ua/upload-files/IntCooperation/IntAudits/31-12-2011%2010-0000/BlackSeaAudit.pdf