Bratislava, 12 May 2020 - In 2019, the Supreme Audit Office of the Slovak Republic (SAO) continued to focus its audits on significant risks related to the use of public finances or State property, and in particular on the efficiency and effectiveness of these resources. More than half of the SAO SR audits were audits of the performance of public resources and their combination with financial or compliance audits allowing such a measurement of effectiveness and economy. This states the national authority for external audit and control in its annual report for the last year. The SAO SR President, Karol Mitrík, will present it to MPs at the May session of the Parliament.

According to the head of Slovak auditors, due to the emergency regarding coronavirus, several budgetary rules are being relaxed and it is clear that the parameters of public administration budgets for 2020 won´t be reached. "The conclusions of our several audits performed in 2019, as well as in previous ones, showed that budgetary and financial discipline in the years of economic growth was not at level to create a more significant cushion that would absorb expected economic downturn this year and likely the following ones”, notes K. Mitrík.  At the same time, he believes that members of the National Council of the Slovak Republic and Government will learn from this negative experience.

The full text of the press release about this topic in Slovak language is available here. Use the Google icon in the top bar for automatic translation into the desired language.

Read the Annual report 2019 in its entirety here.