Drafts
Draft Strategic Development Plan of the Chamber of Accounts for 2008-2010
The Chamber of Accounts of the Republic of Azerbaijan is a permanent state body of budgetary and financial control reporting to the Milli Majlis (Parliament) in compliance with the Law of the Republic of Azerbaijan “On the Chamber of Accounts”. From the viewpoint of international analogy the Chamber of Accounts operates in the Republic as a Supreme Audit Institution. The Chamber carries out control over approval and execution of the state budget, management of state property and issuance of orders in relation to such property, inflow of funds from privatization of state property to the state budget and use of resources allocated from the state budget to legal and physical entities and municipalities in an assigned manner (Article 2-1 of the Law of the Republic of Azerbaijan “On the Chamber of Accounts”). There is a great need to constantly increase the professional skills and capabilities of staff of the Chamber of Accounts, improve financial control practices and bringing them into conformity with international standards. External support to the Chamber of Accounts is an important precondition in order to meet this demand and form the capability of staff to work with international audit and accounting standards.
Until recently some work has been done in this direction. Thus, Australian IDP Education Australia Limited and Stanton Partners carried out a technical support program for the Chamber of Accounts within the framework of the second Institutional Building Technical Assistance project (IBTA II), which was implemented with the support of the World Bank. Although one of the main aims of the program was to form the professional skills and capabilities in the Chamber of Accounts on the basis of international accounting and auditing standards and conduct relevant training courses, only international consultants provided only few training courses for the staff of the Chamber of Accounts on different types of public sector auditing.
But the state budget has significantly grown as compared to previous years as a result of an influx of large amounts of money into the country, macroeconomic stability and sustainable development and this growth is permanent. Therefore, it is particularly important to establish a reliable and qualitative mechanism of control over the use of increasing state resources. Taking into consideration the increased attention of the state and government to this issue, there is a great need for the settlement of this problem.
In view of the all of these, the Strategic Development Plan (SDP) of the Chamber of Accounts for 2008-2010 was drafted with the support of Ireland’s HELM Corporation Limited within the framework of the Corporate and Public Sector Accountability Project (CAPSAP) implemented by the World Bank. The Plan included an action plan to resolve the issues concerning the activities of the Chamber. SECO is planning to allocate resources in the form of a grant to implement these activities. The Operation Guidelines of the project (April 2008) envisaged purchasing computer equipment and material for training, providing advice and international training to managers, as well as information technologies on auditing, auditing law and budgeting, and advice on human resources for auditing, organizing secondments with the purpose of training/practice, providing basic training for trainers, purchasing computer equipment for the Treasury Information Management System (TIMS) and ensuring online connection to this system, developing and implementing training programs, establishing bilateral relations with an experienced Supreme Audit Institution and initiating pilot audits.
At the same time, the SDP specifically focused on efficient management of human resources as efforts supporting improvement of state financial control. It was stressed that any reform depends on the capacities and capabilities of human resources and the establishment of an institutional structure supporting a more modernized approach to auditing. Since the number of staff of the Chamber of Accounts does not provide for fully conducting the mentioned activities now, it is planned to recruit new staff members every year to work for the Chamber on the basis of a recruiting programme. This requires continuing and further developing professional audit training to improve the capabilities and skills of the whole staff.
Besides, the Chamber of Accounts should aim to ensure that its staff conduct large-scale audits in 2008-2010 at the second stage of its development in accordance with international standards and with minimum international contribution. This long-term objective covers different components of auditing, including audit planning, audit reports and quality assurance.
The aim of the Chamber of Accounts should also be going out of the scope of financial audits and widely using performance audits and other types of audit at the present times when budget expenditures are continuously rising and qualitative audit control is on demand. All of these immediately require drafting national audit standards and relevant methodical provisions on the basis of international audit standards. The activity of the Chamber of Accounts in this area is considered to be a priority.
The Chamber of Accounts of the Republic of Azerbaijan is a permanent state body of budgetary and financial control reporting to the Milli Majlis (Parliament) in compliance with the Law of the Republic of Azerbaijan “On the Chamber of Accounts”. From the viewpoint of international analogy the Chamber of Accounts operates in the Republic as a Supreme Audit Institution. The Chamber carries out control over approval and execution of the state budget, management of state property and issuance of orders in relation to such property, inflow of funds from privatization of state property to the state budget and use of resources allocated from the state budget to legal and physical entities and municipalities in an assigned manner (Article 2-1 of the Law of the Republic of Azerbaijan “On the Chamber of Accounts”). There is a great need to constantly increase the professional skills and capabilities of staff of the Chamber of Accounts, improve financial control practices and bringing them into conformity with international standards. External support to the Chamber of Accounts is an important precondition in order to meet this demand and form the capability of staff to work with international audit and accounting standards.
Until recently some work has been done in this direction. Thus, Australian IDP Education Australia Limited and Stanton Partners carried out a technical support program for the Chamber of Accounts within the framework of the second Institutional Building Technical Assistance project (IBTA II), which was implemented with the support of the World Bank. Although one of the main aims of the program was to form the professional skills and capabilities in the Chamber of Accounts on the basis of international accounting and auditing standards and conduct relevant training courses, only international consultants provided only few training courses for the staff of the Chamber of Accounts on different types of public sector auditing.
But the state budget has significantly grown as compared to previous years as a result of an influx of large amounts of money into the country, macroeconomic stability and sustainable development and this growth is permanent. Therefore, it is particularly important to establish a reliable and qualitative mechanism of control over the use of increasing state resources. Taking into consideration the increased attention of the state and government to this issue, there is a great need for the settlement of this problem.
In view of the all of these, the Strategic Development Plan (SDP) of the Chamber of Accounts for 2008-2010 was drafted with the support of Ireland’s HELM Corporation Limited within the framework of the Corporate and Public Sector Accountability Project (CAPSAP) implemented by the World Bank. The Plan included an action plan to resolve the issues concerning the activities of the Chamber. SECO is planning to allocate resources in the form of a grant to implement these activities. The Operation Guidelines of the project (April 2008) envisaged purchasing computer equipment and material for training, providing advice and international training to managers, as well as information technologies on auditing, auditing law and budgeting, and advice on human resources for auditing, organizing secondments with the purpose of training/practice, providing basic training for trainers, purchasing computer equipment for the Treasury Information Management System (TIMS) and ensuring online connection to this system, developing and implementing training programs, establishing bilateral relations with an experienced Supreme Audit Institution and initiating pilot audits.
At the same time, the SDP specifically focused on efficient management of human resources as efforts supporting improvement of state financial control. It was stressed that any reform depends on the capacities and capabilities of human resources and the establishment of an institutional structure supporting a more modernized approach to auditing. Since the number of staff of the Chamber of Accounts does not provide for fully conducting the mentioned activities now, it is planned to recruit new staff members every year to work for the Chamber on the basis of a recruiting programme. This requires continuing and further developing professional audit training to improve the capabilities and skills of the whole staff.
Besides, the Chamber of Accounts should aim to ensure that its staff conduct large-scale audits in 2008-2010 at the second stage of its development in accordance with international standards and with minimum international contribution. This long-term objective covers different components of auditing, including audit planning, audit reports and quality assurance.
The aim of the Chamber of Accounts should also be going out of the scope of financial audits and widely using performance audits and other types of audit at the present times when budget expenditures are continuously rising and qualitative audit control is on demand. All of these immediately require drafting national audit standards and relevant methodical provisions on the basis of international audit standards. The activity of the Chamber of Accounts in this area is considered to be a priority.