Kick-off meeting for the project „Development and strengthening of the capacities of State Audit Institution and Audit Authority” organised

On 20th November 2018, in the premises of the Ministry of Finance, Directorate for Finance and Contracting of the EU Assistance Funds, the kick-off meeting for the project „Development and strengthening of the capacities of State Audit Institution and Audit Authority” was organised. The project is being financed within the Country Action Programme for Montenegro for 2014, under the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA II) and it will last 18 months, i.e. until May 2020.

The overall objective of this contract is to strengthen the capacities of the Audit Authority and the State Audit Institution of Montenegro.

Component 1 will focus on support to the Audit Authority (AA), in particular development of AA strategic plan and action plan for its implementation, improvement of the audit manuals for different types of audits according to the international standards and EU best practices, assessment of training needs, development and implementation of training program for the auditors, on the job trainings, study visits, introduction of quality assurance methodology and improvement of the institutional capacity in terms of better IT management. 

Component 2 will focus on support to Montenegro State Audit Institution (SAI), in particular improvement of SAI institutional capacity, standardization of the audit process for financial, regularity and performance audit aligned with ISSAI standards, organization and delivery of trainings for SAI and improvement of the institutional capacity in terms of better IT management system.

The project will be implemented by the GFA Consulting Group GmbH from Germany, in consortium with the TIM4PIN Consultancy Ltd, Supreme Audit Office of Poland and State Audit Office of the Republic of Croatia. Its total value is 648.500,00 EUR, out of which the EU contribution is 90% and National co-financing is 10%. The project is being implemented under indirect management of EU funds in Montenegro, with the Directorate for Finance and Contracting of the EU Assistance Funds, Ministry of Finance being the Contracting Authority.

The kick-off meeting was attended by the representatives of the Ministry of Finance, Montenegro State Audit Institution, Audit Authority and representatives of the EU Delegation to Montenegro. Project management and key expert who will be working on implementation of the project had the opportunity to present themselves and the outline of the project activities. Also, the provisional work plan for the next period was discussed and agreed at the meeting.