OSCE Mission to Skopje supports capacity-building of internal auditors in municipalities

SKOPJE, 18 April 2008 - Assisting local internal auditors in applying legal regulations and developing fully functional internal audit units is the aim of a workshop that started in Veles today.

The course is part of a project that includes 27 municipalities, and is implemented by the local Association of Finance Officers (AFO), and the OSCE Spillover Monitor Mission to Skopje.

"The project was designed to support the process of fiscal decentralization through ensuring the proper implementation of legislation in the area of internal control and internal audit. This will help strengthen the ability of municipalities to cope with new challenges brought by the decentralization process," said Alessandro Tedesco, Acting Head of the OSCE Mission's Public Administration Reform Department.

Evgenija Gramatikova, President of AFO, said that it was a legal obligation for all local self-government units to establish a unit of internal audit and appoint an authorized accountant.

"It is important to provide continuous assistance to municipalities that abide by the legal requirements and have internal audit units, but still face different problems in the execution of the internal audit. AFO experts will lead the internal auditors through the process of planning, conducting and reporting on the internal audit in 2008," she added.

In 2006 and 2007, the OSCE Mission to Skopje in co-operation with AFO, organized a number of training courses for local self-government units, which resulted in more consistent implementation of legal regulations in the area of fiscal decentralization.