State audit – a tool for trust and openness of government
At the XV International Economic Forum "Russia - Islamic World: KazanForum 2024", experts discussed the development of a culture of accountability and openness of government bodies, the role of audit in preventing and detecting corruption, the interaction of the main bodies of external and internal state financial control, noting the achievement of systematicity in work and emphasizing the need for independence of audit bodies.
The session was attended by: Chairman of the State Council of the Republic of Tatarstan Farid Mukhametshin, auditor of the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation Svetlana Orlova, chairman of the State Duma Control Committee Oleg Morozov, chairman of the Accounts Court of the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria Benmarouf Abdelkader, deputy head of the Federal Treasury Eli Isayev, auditor of the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation Dmitry Zaytsev, deputy chairman of the Accounts Chamber of the Republic of Azerbaijan Nasir Sadygov, deputy director of Rosfinmonitoring Galina Bobrysheva, first deputy chairman of the board of PJSC Sberbank Alexander Vedyakhin, deputy auditor general of the Republic of Gambia Pa Majane Ndou, chairman of the State Duma Committee on Labor, Social Policy and Veterans' Affairs Yaroslav Nilov, vice president of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Russia Vladimir Padalko, auditor of the Accounts Chamber of the Republic of Tatarstan Ilnur Mubarakov, deputy chairman of the State Council Committee of the Republic of Tatarstan on budget, taxes and finance Kamil Nugaev.
"The basis of all our successes is, of course, peace, harmony, training of personnel and the use of these personnel under your (Accounts Chamber - editor's note) control. Scheduled and unscheduled inspections conducted by the Accounts Chamber of our republic protect the heads of economic entities from serious consequences if something is overlooked. The gross regional product of the republic is 4 trillion 320 billion rubles, the volume of shipped products exceeded 4 trillion 742 million rubles," Farid Mukhametshin said.
"Today, we already have Accounts Chambers in 89 subjects, [including] in the new 4 subjects of the Russian Federation. Of course, we want to focus on the critical risks of implementing the country's development goals set by the President. Speaking about the number and structure of violations identified: last year, we identified 4.8 thousand violations. At the same time, compared to 2022, the amount [of funds for] identified violations has increased by 2.5 times. This is mainly accounting, settlements. We returned only 26 billion [rubles] to the budget. We will look much deeper. We know what problems there are today with digitalization: what programs, where do they go, what do they provide, what is their price? Sometimes these prices are all inflated,” said Svetlana Orlova, noting the effectiveness of the Accounts Chamber of Tatarstan.
“The most important thing that has appeared in the last 3 years is the systematicity in work, in the interaction of Parliament and the Accounts Chamber. After numerous discussions, we agreed and adopted the corresponding changes to our regulations, and today we receive not one report from the Accounts Chamber annually, as it was before, but once a quarter. And we understand what instruments of parliamentary control need to be used to intervene in this process, where our support is needed,” Oleg Morozov emphasized.
"Today, very important changes are planned in the social and economic sphere, including those related to the development of digital technologies, with the development of information. And our authorities, of course, need to implement these new technologies," said Benmarouf Abdelkader.
"Five years ago, one could hear that there is a big burden on authorities and legal entities when the Accounts Chamber and the internal state financial control body check the same thing. We have solved this problem here too, synchronizing control activity plans. We have defined and are defining for ourselves checks that are of mutual interest, a single report is given. And the burden on the objects of control has been seriously reduced: if in previous years, Rosfinnadzor as a whole conducted 16 thousand checks, then last year the treasury (the Treasury - editor's note) conducted less than 5 thousand," said Eli Isaev.
Deputy Chairman of the Accounts Chamber of the Republic of Azerbaijan Nasir Sadigov noted in his speech that there are problems that each supreme audit institution (SAI) may face when assessing national climate indicators. "One of such problems is the fact that Azerbaijan is among the countries most contaminated with mines in the world, and that large resources are required to restore forests and the ecosystem as a whole in the territories liberated from occupation," the speaker said.
As part of bilateral cooperation, to date, the Accounts Chamber of the Republic of Azerbaijan has signed memorandums on bilateral cooperation with 16 countries, including the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation, as well as SAIs of such countries as the Republic of Turkey, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and the Islamic Republic of Iran.
"As an example of joint activities, I would like to note that our cooperation with the Russian SAI is carried out in several areas. Firstly, a Memorandum of Cooperation was signed between the Accounts Chamber of Russia and the Accounts Chamber of Azerbaijan and updated over time. On the other hand, we cooperate within the framework of the "Council of Heads of Supreme Audit Institutions of the CIS Member States", as well as within the regional INTOSAI Working Groups," Nasir Sadigov explained the details of the joint work of Azerbaijan and Russia.
The Jubilee XV International Economic Forum "Russia - Islamic World: KazanForum 2024" is being held in Kazan from May 14 to 19. This year, its key theme is "Trust and Cooperation". The main goal of the Forum is to strengthen trade and economic, scientific and technical, social and cultural ties between the regions of the Russian Federation and the countries of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, as well as to promote the development of Islamic financial system institutions in the Russian Federation.
Organizers-partners: Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation
Source: https://kazanforum.ru/press-center/analytics-2024/11552/