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26.08.2016

Belarusian, Polish financial watchdogs to step up cooperation

MINSK (BelTA) – The Belarusian State Control Committee (SCC) will enhance cooperation with the Supreme Audit Office of Poland, Chairman of the State Control Committee Leonid Anfimov told the media, BelTA has learned.

A delegation of the Polish Supreme Audit Office headed by President Krzysztof Kwiatkowski is in Belarus on a visit on 25-26 August.

“We have very close business contacts with our colleagues from Poland. This is the first time the delegation of the Supreme Audit Office of Poland has come to Belarus on a visit. But we have met at various international events,” Leonid Anfimov said.

In 2003 in Warsaw the agencies signed a cooperation agreement which provides for joint monitoring activities, exchange of experiences and information.” We conduct joint audits, training seminars and conferences, share experiences and information. Cooperation with the Polish colleagues has been increasingly vibrant,” Leonid Anfimov said.

The supreme audit agencies of Belarus and Poland also cooperate at the regional level. In June this year, representatives of Poland's Supreme Audit Office participated in the international seminar on increasing the efficiency of public financial control and audit organized by the State Control Committee in Grodno. The parties discussed the promising areas of cooperation, both at the level of central offices and regional organizations, and shared the experience in monitoring activities in their countries.

One of the important joint audits was conducted in 2014-2015. The financial watchdogs of Belarus and Poland, with the participation of Ukrainian colleagues, audited the status of protection of the Western Bug river against pollution, examined how the recommendations issued by the watchdogs following the audit in 2006 were implemented.

Krzysztof Kwiatkowski praised the results of the trilateral audit (its results were reviewed in Lublin this year): “The results of the audit showed that waste water coming from Belarus to the Western Bug is pollution-free.” During the meeting in Lublin the supreme financial watchdogs of Belarus, Poland and Ukraine signed a joint communique to intensify the work aimed at improving the eco-state of the Western Bug.

The President of the Supreme Audit Office named the cooperation with the State Control Committee of Belarus as most fruitful among the controlling bodies of different countries. He stressed that the practices of the Belarusian State Control Committee are useful. “We can learn a lot from our Belarusian counterparts,” said Krzysztof Kwiatkowski.

The State Control Committee develops cooperation with the relevant agencies of other states. The committee has signed agreements on cooperation with the supreme financial watchdogs of 15 countries. The State Control Committee is a member of the International and European Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions. The committee also develops cooperation in member states of the CIS and the Eurasian Economic Union. This year Minsk played host to a session of the CIS Council of the Heads of Supreme Audit Institutions. The session was attended by representatives of nine states, including a delegation of Slovakia, invited as a guest.