EUROSAI. Magazine N18 - 2012

> 79 < EUROPEAN ORGANISATION OF SUPREME AUDIT INSTITUTIONS www.eurosai.org No. 18 - 2012 REPORTS AND STUDIES In the case of EUROSAI, significant advances have been taking place in recent years aimed at strengthening the external control and independence of Supreme Audit Institutions. Among other activities, a monitoring has been carried out of the actions adopted for promoting the strengthening of public external control, in line with the Agreement of the United Nations General Assembly of 22 December 2011 and the EUROSAI Agreement of the same year to strengthen the independence of the Supreme Audit Institutions. Measures have also been taken to strengthen and support that independence within the framework of Strategic Goal 1 of EUROSAI, relating to “Capacity Building”. Moreover, promoting the implementation of the ISSAIs and of INTOSAI GOV and the increase in cooperation and the sharing of experiences are designed as essential aspects in the process of strengthening EUROSAI members. These are all initiatives which, together with other similar ones, lead to an improvement in public external control and a guarantee for achieving its maximum independence. Conclusion The serious economic and social situation and the growing demands for budgetary discipline and austerity require the external control bodies to exert a greater effort in verifying the correct and proper use of public funds. A principle that has to guide their actions is the standing commitment to improve the fulfilment of their duty in order to satisfy the aim of controlling public management in its various aspects and to achieve a greater public repercussion of their activity. For this, the rules of budgetary stability and financial sustainability constitute an essential control element over the activity of the entire public sector. Equally, the external control bodies also have to play a key role in fostering the transparency of economic- financial management and good governance of the Public Administrations. In this field of transparency, the external control bodies can and must be a fundamental instrument for promoting the satisfaction of citizen’s rights, informing society, immediately and in a way that is accessible, about those aspects of the audited economic-financial activity that is of interest. The Spanish Court of Audit has responded to this goal by means of developing and implementing an Accountability Website on local public sector bodies, allowing knowledge of the accounts of local bodies to be made accessible to all citizens. Finally, the strengthening of the role of the external control bodies is taking place by means of strengthening international collaboration and cooperation, especially at the level of the organisations of Supreme Audit Institutions, as are EUROSAI or INTOSAI, which permit the fostering of independence and sharing of experiences among the control institutions which they comprise. n n In an additional step towards greater transparency, the Court of Audit decided to make the information provided by bodies in the local public sector available to all citizens, by means of the Accountability Website or the Citizens Website. n n The external control bodies can and must be a fundamental instrument for promoting the satisfaction of citizen’s rights, informing society, about those aspects of the audited economic-financial activity that is of interest. n