-SAI Georgia
The history of the Chamber of Control of Georgia (CCG) comes from 1918, when the National Council of the Democratic Republic of Georgia adopted Law on "establishment of State Comptroller's position" and the First State Comptroller Philippe Gogichaishvili (Professor, famous scientist and one of the founders of Tbilisi State University) was elected.
From 1918-1921 the National Council adopted laws on "Establishment of the State Comptroller" and "State Control of the Democratic Republic of Georgia". In the year 1921 in the Constitution of the Republic of Georgia, the Chamber of Control was named country’s Supreme Audit Institution (SAI).
In 1921, the Soviet army annexed Georgia and for the next 70 years the Chamber of Control became part of the USSR’s national control machinery.
The CCG was re-established again in June 1992. Georgia’s new Constitution, which was adopted in 1995, recognizes the Chamber of Control of Georgia as the country’s SAI. The law governing the Chamber of Control was adopted in April 1993 and amended in 1996. In April 1997, Parliament adopted new law governing the Chamber of Control, which was amended in 2004.
According to the Georgian Constitution and Law, the Chamber of Control is an independent Institution. It is responsible for the country’s finance and economic control, also conducts its activities on behalf of the Parliament. The CCG supervises the use of state funds and valuable assets; secures national wealth and state property; conducts audit and control to ensure legal, purposeful, most economical, and effective use of state funds and valuable assets.
The Chamber of Control’s authority, within its competence, is legitimate for all bodies of legislative, executive, and judicial authorities; local government bodies; special state funds; the National Bank of Georgia; and all other government-related organizations and entities.
The CCG is liable only to the Parliament. Chamber of Control is an independent institution from the Executive Power in its activities. At the same time it is independent from the Parliament in the field of Auditing. The Chamber sets up the action plans itself. The recommendations of the Parliament on the auditing of various institutions have to be taken into consideration but it is not obligatory.
Chamber of Control is independent financially, constitutionally and organizationally. It is based on Lima Declaration Principles, which reflects concrete SAI requirements for independence.
The CCG is a member of INTOSAI since 1992, a member of EUROSAI since 1993 and a member of ASOSAI since 2004.
The Chairman of the Chamber of Control of Georgia is elected by the Parliament following the proposal of the Chairman of the Parliament. Chairman’s term of office is 5 years. Chairman can only be removed from the office by the decision of the Parliament in accordance with the article 64 of the Constitution of Georgia.
The Chairman has 4 deputies; one of them is the first deputy. The deputies are appointed and removed by the Chairman of the Parliament on the proposal of the Chairman of the Chamber of Control of Georgia.
The Presidium is the highest collegial body of the CCG. The members of the presidium are the Chairman, who is head of the presidium and the deputies; the Chairman appoints the other members.
On June 24, 2004, the Parliament of Georgia has elected Dr. Zurab Soselia as the new Chairman of the Chamber of Control of Georgia, for the next 5 years.
After the election of the new Chairman and the appointment of the new management, the CCG has started wide ranged reform, which included structural, institutional and organizational development and human resource optimization of the Chamber. In the framework of anticorruption activity, the authority of the Chamber has been changed totally.
The Deputy Chairmen, Heads of Departments and their Deputies, Heads of Divisions and their Deputies have been dismissed. Moreover, the total number of the local staff has been greatly reduced according their involvement in corruption and bribe sharing system of the old
Chamber of Control (approximately by 1/3, 300 employers), which should give the Chamber an opportunity to improve their professional skills and to provide them with high salaries. The departments have been rearranged by their auditing subjects and now they recognize their clear objectives.
1. In 2002, According to the negotiations between the governments of Germany and Georgia it was decided that GTZ would support CCG in improving the different fields of institutional capacity. GTZ, with professional support of the Chamber of Control of the German State of Hess (Hessischer Rechnungshof), has been implementing an assistance project to the Chamber of Control of Georgia since July, 2003.
At this moment several activities have been implemented: translated Audit Manual of the Federal Chamber of Control of Germany into Russian; organized series of seminars on the Audit Manual of the Federal Chamber of Control of Germany and International Audit Standards, made different recommendations on the organizational structure and legal bases of the Chamber of Control, provided training in carrying out audits in the fields of road construction and taxes and together with German and Georgian Auditors audited Large Payer’s Tax Inspection and Road Fund. In the near future, joint audits with German experts will be organized at different State Institutions. Beside it is completing the work of preparation of the Rules of the Chamber of Control. Also, the training tours of Georgian Auditors to Germany have been planned.
2. An UNDP assisted project was signed on November 8, 2004 and its implementation has been started from December 2004. The Project is for 24 months and the main and global outcome of this project is to strengthen the capacity of total state system for financial-economic control and, in particular, of the Chamber of Control of Georgia, the most important unit thereof, as well as to increase its performance efficiency and promote the modernization of national budgetary system.
The project aims to strengthen the Georgian Supreme Audit Institution’s ability to carry out its mandate of government’s oversight to serve the public interest in an accountable, transparent and professional manner. In support of that objective, the Chamber’s overall effectiveness as an institution must be strengthened.
In order to attain these goals, the following objectives must be implemented under the mentioned project:
assist in setting up the system for strategic
planning of operations to be performed by the Chamber of Control;
create flexible and effective mechanism for
identification of conceptual approaches and priorities of the Chamber in
order to perform the functions prescribed under the Constitution and laws of
Georgia in an effective manner;
modernize the document movement and
circulation, also other administrative procedures, support in introduction
of relevant innovations;
promote optimization of intra-structural and
inter-institutional relations of the Chamber of Control including, and
primarily with the Parliament of the Country, Chancellery of the Government,
State institutions, other subunits of national financial system and regions,
through introduction of methodological-practical approaches and modern ICT;
prepare recommendations for setting up under
the Chamber of Control a modern system for the development of human
resources and promote implementation thereof;
promote and act as a facilitator in further democratization of activities carried out by the Chamber of Control. Advanced methodology and e-tools will be used in order to achieve the objective. This includes creation of nets and provision of modern hardware and software, as well as training courses for officials.
At this moment the UNDP has already finished the establishment of the Training Center at the Chamber of Control of Georgia. The special strategy plan and methodology in the field of Program Auditing will be set up by International Experts who will work on the pilot courses and on training the trainers at the Training Center. CCG will have an opportunity to cooperate with the International Experts in establishing Program Audit Manuals and Guidelines and participate in the training process and share received knowledge and experience with the auditors. CCG could also create a team of retrained professionals who will be able to perform efficient pilot audits meeting with international standards.
Under the UNDP project the Chamber of Control of Georgia (CCG) has already organised several workshops and seminars on different issues, which were of interest to the staff of the CCG. There are also plans to organise various seminars and workshops on other issues.
3. The international consultants engaged through UK-DFID have developed a "Strategy for Corporate Development and Reorganization Implementation Plan for the CCG. As a result of the mentioned strategy the World Bank has already realized two very important projects at the CCG from September 2005:
Development of Training Materials and
Training Programs for the CCG;
Legislation Drafting for the CCG; The Chamber of Control is cooperating with the Georgian office of the Transnational Crime and Corruption Centre of the American University. A group of Georgian and American scientists are doing academic research. At the same time the Treasury and Justice Departments of the United States of America will help the Chamber of Control in methodological and institutional subjects.
The steps taken in the reorganization to date are largely based on suggestions emanating from a dated TACIS report (produced in 2003) and have been limited, leaving significant work ahead. There is an urgent need for the CCG to develop a coherent medium-term reorganization implementation plan, to guide its reorganization and reform.
CCG’s main priorities are: ratification of the Lima Declaration and the subsequent INTOSAI documents, which ensures the financial, constitutional and organizational independence of the Supreme Audit Institutions, including the Chamber of Control of Georgia.
As a country in the process of building democratic institutions effective external audit is very important, but no component other than financial control exists so far. There have been efforts to implement some techniques of Program Auditing at the Chamber of Control within the last few years, but it is not extended widely.
The need of auditing economy, efficiency and effectiveness of the expenditures of state funds, originates from the society itself. After the “Rose Revolution” the probability and the level of corruption was reduced, but the struggle against corruption and bribery is the priority both for newly appointed management of the Chamber of Control and country’s government. Not only financial statements but also managerial decisions need to be audited. The Society must know and have access to the information of how effectively and efficiently the State Funds are spent.
In the near future, CCG is going to take into consideration best practices in Program Auditing and implement it within the Chamber’s activity, to harmonize Georgian legislation with the European Union countries and carry out effective Program Auditing.
In the process of reform CCG has great support from international donor organizations, such as: EU, World Bank, UNDP, UK-DFID, GTZ, etc. Quarterly meetings with donor organizations and international representatives are organised in Georgia, where the outputs of the ongoing projects and future perspectives of the institutional, structural and organizational development of the Chamber of Control of Georgia are discussed.