Short presentation by Marita Salgrave at the regional conference for Supreme Audit Institutions of European Neighbourhood South countries, co-organised by the Algerian Court of Accounts and SIGMA in Algiers, 16-17 December 2014.

1. © OECD
AjointinitiativeoftheOECDandtheEuropeanUnion,
principallyfinancedbytheEU
REGIONAL CONFERENCE FOR
SUPREME AUDIT INSTITUTIONS OF EUROPEAN
NEIGHBOURHOOD SOUTH COUNTRIES
Successes and challenges
of the Latvian State Audit Office
Marita Salgrave, Council Member, State Audit Office,
Republic of Latvia
Algiers 16-17 December 2014

2. AjointinitiativeoftheOECDandtheEuropeanUnion,
principallyfinancedbytheEU
1
Contents
1) Main factors preventing the SAO from having more
impact on public money management practices
• Weak control environment
• SAO capacity limitations
2) Current priority areas for development of the SAO
• Audit quality and scope
• Audit impact – dissemination of results

3. AjointinitiativeoftheOECDandtheEuropeanUnion,
principallyfinancedbytheEU
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Main factors preventing the SAO from having
more impact on public money management
practices
Control environment
 Values of public officials being responsible for
spending
 Insufficient legal framework to impose accountability
for economical, efficient and effective use of public
funds

4. AjointinitiativeoftheOECDandtheEuropeanUnion,
principallyfinancedbytheEU
3
Main factors preventing the SAO from having
more impact on public money management
practices (follow-up)
Control environment (follow-up)
 Comparatively low capacity of “investigation” bodies
to detect economic crime
 High rotation of public officials, decreasing knowledge
and know-how at institutional level in ministries and
other public bodies

5. AjointinitiativeoftheOECDandtheEuropeanUnion,
principallyfinancedbytheEU
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Main factors preventing the SAO from having
more impact on public money management
practices (follow-up)
SAO capacity limitations
 Corruption and fraud schemes become “smarter” and
more complex
 Compliance and performance audits initiated based
on risk assessment – too many institutions “out of
scope”
 Insufficient competitiveness of SAO with private
sector employers in terms of staff remuneration

6. AjointinitiativeoftheOECDandtheEuropeanUnion,
principallyfinancedbytheEU
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Current priority areas for development of the
SAO
Audit quality and scope
 Increased share of performance audits in the SAO’s
audit envelope
 Focus on audits in municipalities (high risk bodies)
 Increased share of ad hoc audits (possibility to avoid
“bad” decisions)
 Focus on financial impact (1:5)

7. AjointinitiativeoftheOECDandtheEuropeanUnion,
principallyfinancedbytheEU
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Current priority areas for development of the
SAO (follow-up)
Audit impact – dissemination of results
 Switch from the legislator as the SAI’s main client to
the individual citizen and society as the SAI’s main
client
 Simplifying message to citizens
 Pro-active involvement of citizens

8. AjointinitiativeoftheOECDandtheEuropeanUnion,
principallyfinancedbytheEU
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Thank you for attention!
State Audit Office of the Republic of Latvia
50 SkanstesStreet, Riga LV-1013
Telephone:+371 7017500
Fax: +371 7017673
E-mail: Marita.Salgrave@lrvk.gov.lv
Home page: http://www.lrvk.gov.lv