documentation included 13 audit reports published in information bulletins, as well as eight reports containing results of analytical work96. In 2004 the ACU examined approximately 600 entities. A significant part of ACU activity is its analytical and expert work, including in particular quarterly and annual reports on the execution of the state budget, which are prepared on the basis of information obtained from budgetary authorities at central and local levels as well as on analyses of macroeconomic data. The ACU has found its place in the family of the Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) - in November 1998 the ACU was accepted as a member of the INTOSAI and in May 1999 as a member of the EUROSAI. It has performed parallel audits with Hungary and Poland in areas of common interest, such as environmental protection, flood prevention and border crossings. The ACU is a member of the EUROSAI Working Groups on IT and Environmental Auditing (WGEA). Currently a Ukrainian initiative is being launched to carry out, with SAI members of the WGEA, as well as three INTOSAI working group (compliance audit, public debt committee, environmental auditing), a parallel audit of funds allocated for the elimination of the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster. 5.6.2 5.6.2.1
Baseline Questions Does the SAI have clear authority to satisfactorily audit all public and statutory funds and resources, bodies and entities?
As of January 2006 the ACU obtained a mandate wide enough to cover both budgetary income and expenditure. Previously the ACU mandate was limited, as it only covered budgetary expenditure, which was clearly contradictory with international standards. This limitation was due to the previous wording of the Constitution, which was given a narrow interpretation by the Constitutional Court in 1997 following a submission by the President of Ukraine. The Constitution was changed only after a long struggle of the ACU, supported by a vast majority of parliament and accompanied along the way by a couple of presidential vetoes. However, the mandate of the ACU, as determined by its founding act, which was issued on the basis of the previously binding constitutional order, focuses on budgetary expenditure. Draft amendments will be passed in the coming weeks to bring the ACU Act in line with the text of the Constitution. The ACU remit comprises a wide range of public resources, including budgetary funds, earmarked funds, extra-budgetary funds and budgetary subsidies. It includes funds from external assistance however to the extent that they are included in the state budget revenues. Although the ACU was not authorised to audit budgetary revenue, it still had to perform analyses in this area and in any event checked the revenue of the so-called “special funds”. Meeting its new obligations, as defined in the amended Constitution, should therefore not pose any major difficulty for the ACU. In terms of quantity and types of institutions likely to be audited, the ACU also has a wide remit, as these institutions comprise state bodies, institutions and legal persons, including the National Bank of Ukraine, the State Property Fund, and the Antimonopoly Committee. The ACU remit also includes local state administration. It covers local self-government bodies, enterprises, institutions, organisations, banks and non-governmental entities as well as other bodies and institutions spending budgetary funds. It even covers private persons to the extent of the state funds they receive or manage. Upon authorisation by parliament, the ACU also examines expenditure of the offices of parliament, the President and the Cabinet of Ministers, as well as “state bodies operating abroad” that are financed from the state budget. Such a wide range of potential subjects allows the ACU, in most cases, to follow the flow of budgetary funds to the final user. The situation is rather uncommon with regard to local government, which is not as such audited by the ACU or any specific audit body, but by the State Control and Audit Service, which is part of the executive 96
Source: Annual Report of the ACU for 2004. 119