The Chair, Prof. Dr Vladimir Marinkovic was pleased to continue cooperation with the expert who had for years, in several dozens of cases questioned decision makers at the US Senate and Congress, which will be very useful to the MPs as regards controlling public spending and improving cooperation with the State Audit Institution.

The Chairperson of the Committee on Finance, State Budget and Control of Public Spending Dr Aleksandra Tomic said that meetings like this one serve as an important guide to show the MPs what to strive for when conducting parliamentary oversight. She urged for a more intensive exchange of views and more frequent meetings in order to advance the work in the field of public finance.

The National Assembly Deputy Speaker and member of the Committee on Finance, State Budget and Control of Public Spending said that the State Audit Institution is a relatively recent institution compared to its counterparts in the world but despite this is has in a very short time achieved good results and become the leading institutions in our region. The State Audit Institution has been working on performance audits of public finances some three, four years back. All of these activities aim to boost its capacities and the Committee members’ levels of knowledge in order to be able to adequately review the Institution’s reports. He was grateful for the support given to the State Audit Institution and the Committee in view of the fact that in its EU pre-accession talks Serbia has applied for Chapter 32 which concerns control of public spending.

Radoslav Sretenovic, President of the Council of the State Audit Institution, said that the Institution wants to enhance its already good cooperation with the Committee on Finance, State Budget and Control of Public Spending, especially as regards the analysis of the performance audit reports. He opined that the State Audit Institution has good experts and will continue to work on improving its capacities in the area of public spending.

The former Director of the US Government Accountability Office Joseph Christoff then proceeded to present the US Comptroller General’s Office model of operation which helps the Congress make better decision as regards the public spending of the American people’s money. He also spoke of the partnership between the State Audit Institution, National Assembly Committee and Subcommittee, parallels between the role of the Serbian State Audit Institution and the US Comptroller General’s Office, the services they provide, benefits the society has from performance audits, types of hearings and decisions made and possible application of a similar model in Serbia when it comes to analysing the State Audit Institution’s reports.

In the ensuing debate the participants exchanged views on performance audits and expressed readiness to promote the parliamentary oversight of public spending.

The sitting was chaired by Prof. Dr Vladimir Marinkovic, and attended by the following members of the Subcommittee for the Consideration of Reports on Audits Conducted by the State Audit Institution and members and deputy members of the Committee on Finance, State Budget and Control of Public Spending: Dr Aleksandra Tomic, Veroljub Arsic, Goran Ciric, Dusan Pavlovic, Zika Gojkovic, Milan Lapcevic and Zoran Bojanic.