About local Government, in 2025, auditors will examine compliance with legal obligations and internal rules of transparency or economy related to managing municipal immovable property in a sample of sixteen Slovak municipalities. The state auditors will examine, among other things, whether the property transfers were transparent and whether they brought resources to local governments, streamlined costs or were just transfers without a clear benefit.

In transportation, the national authority for external audit will examine the repair and maintenance of roads administered by the municipalities. In response to the increasing number of bridge closures, it will also look at how effectively the institutions concerned have taken action following a previous audit by the SAO. "After three or four years, through follow-up audits, we want to see where we have moved on this issue. Whether the measures taken have fallen on fertile ground and whether the overall situation in the condition of the selected road infrastructure has improved or deteriorated, and therefore to bring objective information on the state of this infrastructure compared to four years ago, " J. Ivančo, who is responsible for the planning process at the authority, said in the ctrl+A podcast. The contribution of road infrastructure investment projects, the related fulfilment of international obligations, and the assurance of the accessibility of the regions will interest the auditors in the first half of the year.

Children's mental health has deteriorated in recent years due to pandemics, outbreaks of war and other negative impacts of the current times. For this reason, the Slovak auditors decided to inspect the functionality and setup of the support system and the prevention of pupils' mental health issues during the post-COVID period through the implemented programmes and activities in schools. As part of the next audit, the SAO will examine the provision of the right to education of Ukrainian children in schools in Slovakia with the ambition to propose recommendations for improving the system of inclusion and education of migrant children. As part of the cross-cutting audit, the expert staff of the Audit Office also wants to assess how the Office for Gambling Regulation is fulfilling its tasks and mission. They want to check the system of granting and withdrawing individual licences, the obligations related to the administration of compulsory levies, the management of assets, and the system of control and supervision of compliance with the Gambling Act.

In the coming year, the National Control Authority will continue with the development strategy for 2023-2025. Control actions are no longer prioritised solely on compliance with budgetary rules and legality in the management of public property. The auditors focus on examining the long-term financial sustainability of strategic projects and the implementation of key public policy objectives. These include risks in the areas of public health, education, infrastructure development, demography, the environment and social poverty, which threaten not only individuals but also wider regions.

The Office also plans to continue to work with experts from academics and NGOs, whose expertise is used to train and upskill auditors. "Continuous learning is key to recognising our Office's outputs by auditees and the professional or lay public. Through our professional and impartial audit work and its results, naming the problems of efficiency and effectiveness of public money spent, we want to help, among others, the Parliament, the Government, local governments and other public or state institutions to execute their strategies or key projects better, more efficiently and effectively. This is our constitutional mission, thanks to which we can contribute to a well-governed society and strengthen citizens' trust in the state and public administration as a whole," added J. Ivančo, Deputy Chairman of the SAO SR.

Audit plan of SAO SR for the 2025 (in Slovak language) (pdf, 233 kB)