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Overview of External Audit Systems in Local Government

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Overview of External Audit Systems in Local Government OVERVIEW OF EXTERNAL AUDIT SYSTEMS IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT 2018 INTRODUCTION The Overview of external audit systems in local government was prepared as a result of the activities of the EUROSAI Task Force on Municipality Audit (TFMA), implementing the Strategic Goal 2 of the Working Programme “Making the external municipal auditing system more efficient”. In different countries various models of external audit of local government exist. External audit of local government is conducted by SAIs, private auditors, other institutions; all of them have different mandate and audit practice. The Overview implements the first activity under the Goal 2 and aims to present summarised information on how the external audit of local government is organised in the TFMA countries. Based on this information and following the implementation of the Goal 2, later on the analysis of various models of external audit of local government will be performed, including identification of strengths of various models and disclosure of a good practice examples. The Overview encompasses information obtained from 26 TFMA Member State SAIs. It provides general information about the local government of every country (local authorities, their competences, budget structure) and describes the system of external audit of local government (entities entitled to carry out external audits, their mandate regarding audit types, auditees, etc.). As the Overview focuses on external audit, it does not include information about internal auditors or any other supervisory or control institutions. Likewise, it does not cover audit authorities, established solely for conducting audits of EU funds. Information from the TFMA members was gathered via questionnaire during October – December 2017 and was revised in June 2018. It was reviewed and summarized into the Overview by the Coordination Group, composed of representatives of SAIs of Lithuania (leader of the activity), Estonia and Greece. The Overview relies entirely on information received and verified by members of the TFMA. The sources of information used by SAIs were national legislation, various statistical databases, SAIs’ reports and audit practice, other internal SAIs’ documents (e.g. strategic planning documents), literature, internet. DEFINITIONS OF TERMS AND ABBREVIATIONS LOCAL GOVERNMENT (LOCAL AUTHORITY) MUNICIPAL EXTERNAL AUDIT INSTITUTION (MUNICIPAL AUDITOR) public institution with legal personality, part of the State structure, below the level of central government and accountable to citizens. institution established or auditor appointed (elected) by local These units are usually composed of a legislative body (council or authority in order to conduct external audit of local government and assembly) and an executive body (the Mayor or executive officer), related entities (e.g. municipality, municipality owned enterprises or directly or indirectly elected or selected at local level. The term other entities of local government). This term also applies to audit encompasses different tiers (levels) of government, e.g. villages, institutions established by counties or other regional divisions, if the municipalities, districts, counties, provinces, regions, etc. In this country has two levels of local government (municipal and document, this term also refers to joint municipalities and municipal regional). corporations. OTHER AUDITORS MUNICIPALITY OWNED ENTERPRISE entities or institutions conducting external audit of local corporate entity recognised by national law as an enterprise, and in government, excluding SAIs, regional and municipal external audit which the local authority exercises ownership (joint stock institutions and private auditors. companies, limited liability companies and partnerships limited by share etc.). REGIONAL EXTERNAL AUDIT INSTITUTION PRIVATE AUDITORS audit institution established by governmental institution or regional parliament in order to conduct audit of local authorities (counties, auditors from the private sector, financed from the public budget municipalities, municipalities’ owned enterprises or other entities) and appointed to audit local authorities (counties, municipalities, in the specified region. municipality owned enterprises or other entities of local government). TFMA SAI the Task Force on Municipality Audit, established within European Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions (EUROSAI) in the 44th Supreme audit institution. EUROSAI Governing Board meeting in Luxembourg in June 2016 in order to create an open platform for sharing the best practice and experience among SAIs. TFMA focuses on audit of various tiers of local government, including municipalities as the closest to citizens. CONTENTS Albania ................................................................................................................................................................ 5 Austria ................................................................................................................................................................ 9 Azerbaijan ........................................................................................................................................................ 14 Bosnia and Herzegovina ............................................................................................................................... 18 Croatia .............................................................................................................................................................. 30 Denmark ........................................................................................................................................................... 34 Estonia.............................................................................................................................................................. 37 Finland .............................................................................................................................................................. 43 Georgia ............................................................................................................................................................. 50 Greece .............................................................................................................................................................. 55 Hungary ............................................................................................................................................................ 63 Israel ................................................................................................................................................................. 67 Italy.................................................................................................................................................................... 73 Latvia ................................................................................................................................................................ 77 Lithuania .......................................................................................................................................................... 83 The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia ......................................................................................... 90 Montenegro ..................................................................................................................................................... 94 Poland ............................................................................................................................................................... 99 Portugal .......................................................................................................................................................... 106 Romania ......................................................................................................................................................... 112 Serbia .............................................................................................................................................................. 116 Slovakia .......................................................................................................................................................... 123 Slovenia .......................................................................................................................................................... 129 Spain ............................................................................................................................................................... 135 Turkey ............................................................................................................................................................. 142 Ukraine ........................................................................................................................................................... 149 Overview of external audit systems in local government 4 ALBANIA 1 LOCAL GOVERNMENT OF THE COUNTRY In Albania there are two tiers of local government: municipalities and counties. Albania’s territory is divided into 61 municipalities and 12 counties. Population of Albania is 2,804,751 (according to the census of 2011) or 4,341,918 according to the civil registry. The high discrepancy of population is due to the emigration. Total size of Albania is 28,252 km2. The population in municipalities varies from 557,422 in the
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