The Romanian Court of Accounts started, on October 3, the first stage of the training process in the performance audit, under the coordination of the experts of the Center of Excellence of the supreme audit institution of the USA - General Audit Office (GAO), and in the first stage of training, 25 external public auditors benefit from ten days of training, as a preliminary stage to the performance of two pilot performance audit missions.

The institution mentions in a press release that, in total, 300 auditors will benefit from the training programme under the coordination of the GAO.

This programme is part of the Agreement for reimbursable consulting services regarding the strengthening of the institutional capacity of the Romanian Court of Accounts - P171014, concluded by the supreme audit institution with the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), within the CCR - SAI project for citizens - SIPOCA 744.

"The Romanian Court of Accounts is in an extensive process of institutional reform, the purpose of which is to strengthen the capacity to carry out external public audits in accordance with international standards in the field and with society's expectations. To achieve this reform, we have with us, as the main partners, the World Bank, the Supreme Audit Institution of the United States of America (GAO), the Supreme Audit Institutions of Poland, Holland, Austria, to which is added our team of experts. The realization of this project would not be possible without the support of the Management Authority of the Administrative Capacity Operational Program (AM POCA) and, implicitly, without obtaining financing from the European Social Fund (ESF)," Mihai Busuioc, president of the Romanian Court of Accounts, assessed.

Performance audit training sessions will continue in 2023 with the other external public auditors included in the programme. They will be trained for five days, of which two days in online format and three days in physical format. The entire training process supports the changes brought to the external public audit methodologies of the Court of Accounts, which are in various stages of updating, so that they can be implemented once they are approved by the Plenary of the Court of Accounts.

The implementation period of the CCR-SAI project for the citizen - SIPOCA 744 is between September 9, 2019 - March 9, 2023. The total value of the project is 29.9 million RON, of which the total non-reimbursable expenses - from the FSE, through POCA - are 25.12 million RON. The institution's own contribution is worth 4.79 million RON. The general objective of the project is to strengthen the institutional capacity of the Romanian Court of Accounts to carry out external public audit activity, in accordance with international standards in the field and with society's expectations.AGERPRES(RO - author: George Banciulea, editor: Andreea Marinescu; EN - editor: Maria Voican)