“It is a hard task to maintain achievements” – Georgian state auditor

Kyiv: On Wednesday, 14 June, at international conference “The role of the Accounting Chamber in Ukraine and the challenges it faces” experts pointed to critical importance of audit of public funds for good governance. One of key speakers was Marika Natsvlishvili, director of State Budget Analysis and Strategic Planning Department of State Audit Office of Georgia. In special interview with Front News expert shared her observations on functioning of Supreme Audit Institution (SAI) in Georgia.

 

FNI: Mrs. Natsvlishvili, what was the driving force behind reforms in Georgia in general and reform of SAI in particular?

 

MN: Many reforms, which were successfully implemented, were done during the last 10-15 years. And the main push was firstly political will. That was the main driver. It was also pushed by European Union and in some instances from USA. The team, which was in governing positions at that time, also realized that it is very important that our country choose the European way. So the coincidence of formation of political will with push from European Union made this progress done. The second factor was that government was very keen on attracting real expert people into public administration, and that made and guaranteed the success of reforms.

 

FNI: What is the current situation?

 

MN: Nowadays I would say that it is not new initiatives, but sustainability and maintaining those reforms and creating institutions are most important in Georgia.  In those reformed institutions, qualified people continue to maintain what was achieved more than ten years ago. Main reforms, main push and steps forward were made then. Nowadays most important is to maintain what was achieved. Because if you loose what was achieved it is a great problem. It is also a hard task to maintain achievements.

 

FNI: How professional and independent is state audit in Georgia?

 

MN: Supreme Audit Institution should be independent from political environment. In Georgia it is not totally independent, but balanced: not impacted or impaired by political intervention.  I would say that it was greatest achievement of democracy that we had, but still there many challenges regarding the sustainability, as I already mentioned.

 

FNI: And what are the Georgian achievements in the field of public audit?

 

MN: There was much achieved in legal framework and not only in design, but in practice as well. I cannot recall any audit where someone was told not to write something, or that the disclosure of the audit report was postponed. I’m working in this institution already for 10 years. Of course it is still challenging. When we are talking about developing country, things and environment are constantly changing and you should be even more vigilant and more cautious when you achieve something to preserve it, to grow it and really to institutionalize it. If you have strong institutions, when something happens or changes in political environment, than it cannot have much effect and does not cause impairment on the achievements.

 

FNI: What is the role of civil society in safeguarding these achievements?

 

MN: It is the main problem, which we face now. We should have more support from civil society. Many people say that by comparing with other countries the civil society is strong in Georgia, and it what the governing party doesn’t like, because they are much criticized by civil society. Also the role of international community is always very important.  Still there is some communication or visibility part to be done more, not only asking from civil society to be more pro-active, but by the institutions, like, for example, Supreme Audit Institution. We didn’t do enough work to make them understand how important things are here and that if something happens when we are not safeguarded that is really painful if something goes wrong.

 

FNI: Can you recall such cases?

 

MN: In very recent history, there were cases when something went wrong and civil society organizations were the first ones to quickly respond with declaration or protest against something that might impair either independence or harm reputation of our organization. But still, it needs to be strengthened. And it should be strengthened from both sides: they should be more active as well as, we, Supreme Audit Institution, should be more clear and more intensive in our communication and always keep them informed.

 

FNI: How do you perceive the role of international community?

 

MN: Regarding international community, they unfortunately always stay more diplomatic and not so much strongly active as we expect. That also may be due to lack of communication, and, from their side, realizing how much important is SAI and realizing which risks may be occurring in political environment that might harm. Unfortunately, their reaction is sometimes delayed, when already something is damaged. 

 

FNI: What were the biggest achievements of State Audit Office of Georgia in first two years of reform?

 

MN: Generally, what was most important is the transformation of very bad reputation, even corrupt I would say frankly, of that organization to the modern Supreme Audit Institution, which is oriented on improving the system, not just on using audit findings as kompromat, but to go further: why these violations happened, what was the cause of the problem. Not only just change names and positions, or send someone in prison, but improve the system so much that it does not allow anyone commit again those violations. So this attitude was hardest to achieve and that was real change and achievement of our democracy, one of indicators of independence of SAI. It was a radical change and achievement. We were skeptical about the organization in the beginning, when this huge reform started. There was a lot of skepticism from all side on if we could achieve this and I’m really proud that we succeeded.

 

FNI: What were the side effects of independent state audit?

 

MN: Now we are covering most risky areas. We are not just finding out violations, but, most importantly, showing what can be improved that citizens are better served, that there would be no corruption anymore.