Buletin 3_4-2010 web.pdf - Curtea de Conturi a Republicii Moldova

Study VISIt to State audIt offICe
of the republIC of maCedonIa:
leSSonS learned
During 20-24 September 2010, with the support of the World
Bank a delegation of the Court of Accounts headed by vice-president
of the Court of Accounts, Mrs . Elisaveta Foca paid a study visit
to State Audit Office of the Republic of Macedonia, the objective
of which was exchange of experience and best practices in external
audit .
The visit agenda included the following areas: regularity audit
of state budget revenues; audit of IT systems; performance audit;
role and responsibility of team-leaders, audit managers and audit
directors; twinning program with SAI of Holland; quality assurance
processes and audit of local budgets .
Presentations made by representatives of audit institution, as
well as their benevolence of sharing accumulated experience with
us, and similarities existent between our institutions determined us
to conclude that some practices can be that some practices can be
applied in the Court of Accounts activity .
State Audit Office of the Republic of Macedonia is a relatively
young institution, having 10 years of experience . It employs 111
persons, of which 25 auditors certified in public audit . Employees’
salaries are paid based on Law on state audit, but they are differentiated
depending on duties and responsibilities, as well as achieved
performances .
According to organisational structure, Audit Office has 6 audit
departments, 5 regularity audit departments, 1 performance audit
department, which are led by audit managers (department director)
. IT Audit is done by Department for Informational Technologies
and IT audit .
Each audit department is divided into several groups, consisting
of 2-4 state auditors, who are led by team leaders, certified in public
audit . This practice, according to experts from the SAO of the Republic
of Macedonia is a good one, which confirmed its effectiveness
in recent years since clear segregation of tasks and duties between
audit managers and team leaders ensures greater accountability
and high quality of audit missions at all stages: planning, execution
and reporting .
An interesting experience is to maintain constant composition
of the teams involved in audit, which is beneficial for planning annual
audits and raise efficiency and quality of conducted audits .
The quality framework implemented by SAO of the Republic of
Macedonia is of interest since it is covered in two separate guidelines
applicable to all types of audits: Guide on quality control and
quality assurance Guide .
Quality control function is performed by audit team leader and
manager responsible for the audit engagements and they use spe-
Angela Curchin
Senior state controller,
methodology and Strategic
planning department
91
international cooperation