EUROSAI 8 XI EUROSAI Congress At the first ever EUROSAI online Congress, which took place in April 2021, Mr Miloslav Kala, President of the Supreme Audit Office of the Czech Republic (SAO), assumed the position of EUROSAI President. Mr Kala was born on 3 August 1963 in Boskovice. He lives nearby in Blansko and his entire life is linked to the region of South Moravia. In 1988, he graduated from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of the Brno University of Technology, in the study programme “Automation and Instrumentation Engineering”. After his university studies, he worked at the Adamov Machine Works, first as a Design Engineer and later as the Head of Research and Development. Eventually, he took up the position of Managing Director and Member of the Board. From 1996 to 2000, he pursued a career of entrepreneur and economy consultant. Between the years 2000 and 2002, he acted as the Mayor of the town of Blansko. From 2002 to 2008, Mr Kala was a Member of the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic. During his term of office, from 2002 to 2006, he was the Vice-Chairman of the Mandate and Immunity Committee, Member of the Committee on Economic Affairs, and from 2002 to 2004 he was also a Member of the Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs. From 2003 to 2004, Mr Kala was a Member of the Managing Board of the Railway Infrastructure Administration. In the period 2004-2007, he was a Member and Chairman of the Advisory Committee of the Czech Consolidation Agency. In the parliamentary elections in 2006, Mr Kala was re-elected into the Chamber of Deputies. He became the Chairman of the Mandate and Immunity Committee and continued to be a Member of the Committee on Economic Affairs. He remained in the Chamber of Deputies until November 2008, when he was sworn in as the Vice-President of the Supreme Audit Office. Apart from fulfilling his parliamentary duties, Mr Kala has also devoted his time and effort to academia. From 2002 to 2010, he acted as an external lecturer at the Masaryk University in Brno. Since 2018, he has been a Member of the Scientific Boards of the Faculty of Informatics and Statistics and the Faculty of Finance and Accounting of the University of Economics, Prague. Mr Kala acted as the Vice-President of the Supreme Audit Office until 2013, when he was appointed as President of the SAO. In his capacity as President, Mr Kala initiated the tightening of budgetary rules, which resulted in annual savings amounting to 15 % of SAO’s budget. Under his leadership, the SAO targeted its audits on areas with a potential to make a true impact and on areas where with the help of SAO’s recommendations various negative phenomena could be rectified. The steps leading to the restoration of trust in the SAO as an impartial and independent institution have also been very successful, and today the SAO continues to be at the forefront of surveys on the citizens’ confidence in public institutions. In 2019, Mr Kala received a State Medal of the President of the Czech Republic – Medal of Merit for Service to the Republic in the Area of Economy. He is a holder of the Top Secret security clearance. Last but not least, one of the significant projects that Mr Kala has successfully brought to fruition was the construction of the new SAO headquarters. In 2021, the contract for the new SAO headquarters was awarded a prize for the Best Achievement in Public Procurement and the project came second in the European Competition for responsible and innovative public procurement, the Procura+ Award. Mr Kala has contributed significantly to the development of international cooperation between supreme audit institutions. He advocated the launch of the so-called BIEP (Benchmarking Exchange Information Project), a robust application bringing together the vast majority of EUROSAI members and hundreds of auditors. The SAO has set up the BIEP project and continues to manage it. BIEP enables and facilitates the sharing of data, methodologies and good practices. The SAO also manages the EUROSAI Database of Audits, Products and Training Events. Miloslav Kala is married and has one daughter and two sons. NEW PRESIDENT OF EUROSAI Mr Miloslav Kala, President of the Supreme Audit Office of the Czech Republic
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