On 15-16 October 2018, the Conference of Presidents of Germany’s SAI and the regional audit institutions took place in Bonn. Sustainable development was at the heart of discussion.
In our turbulent and volatile times, SAIs play a role that can furnish a wealth of experiences, lessons learnt and sustainable solutions.“
Symposium: “Good Public Administration and Benefits for Citizens – the Role of Parliamentary Control Bodies” held at the Vienna Hofburg on 25 September 2018.
Kay Scheller, the German SAI’s President discussed audit strategies on e-commerce and road works with his Polish and Czech counterparts.
Tailor employment programmes better to the needs of the young jobseekers, adapt education systems more the demands of the labour market and enhance job placement work: These are the conclusions drawn in the audit compendium that EU member SAIs compiled on “Youth unemployment and the integration of young people into the labour market”
“Our recommendations provide a reliable basis to support the current parliamentary procedure for granting discharge to the Federal Government. Our recommendations accelerate addressing public sector shortcomings and mismanagement“, said Kay Scheller, President of the German SAI when presenting the spring report.
Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs circumvents legal requirements.
Swift action needed to address tax erosion.
“Opportunities have rarely been better to make the federal budget fit for the future”, said Kay Scheller, President of the German SAI when he formally presented the SAI’s 2017 annual report in Berlin on 12 December 2017. “The more sustainable the federal budget is, the less it is vulnerable to economic cycle fluctuations. To create sufficient financial leeway, all tax reliefs and allowances require a thorough review. Financial leeway is needed for the Federal Government to tackle the enormous financial challenges lying ahead.”
The Europe 2020 strategy is designed to promote growth and employment in the EU. The Member States' programmes for the use of Structural Funds allocated to them provide a sound basis for achieving these objectives, although some weaknesses have been found. This is the conclusion drawn by the “Working Group on Structural Funds VII" in its final aggregate report. The weaknesses mainly concern the complexity of regulations and the evaluation of success.
Between October and December 2015, the field offices of the Federal Employment Agency were authorised to fund German language start-up courses, if these were necessary to support job integration. We have studied the requirements for the start-up courses set and implemented by the Federal Employment Agency.
“We acknowledge the efforts made by the Federal Employment Agency to foster integration of refugees in a difficult situation”, emphasizes Kay Scheller, President of the German SAI, when issuing the management letter. “Particularly in such a case, however, some baseline rules governing the design and implementation of language courses need to be in place.” In a similar future situation, the Federal Employment Agency should set the terms and conditions required to ensure that the aims of the measures taken can be achieved in the best way possible.
Since the European Central Bank has taken over the task of banking supervision of some 120 financial institutions or banking groups and since the Single Resolution Mechanism has been put into place, the external audit function has been severely curtailed. A report by the European Court of Auditors confirms that a significant audit gap has emerged.
“Energy policy from a single source“ is the slogan used by the Federal Ministry for Economics and Energy to implement the national task of energy transition. At federal government level, the Federal Ministry for Economics and Energy has assumed lead responsibility for overall coordination of this task. However, the Federal Ministry can do more to adequately perform this role. Currently no coordinated exchange is taking place either within the Ministry or with other government departments or the German federal states. Apart from that, the Federal government does not have an overview of the financial impact of energy transition. Key questions such as “How much does energy transition cost the government?” or “How much should energy transition cost the government?” have not been asked and remain unanswered. The federal government cannot specify what impact individual energy policy measures have and how efficient they are. The strategic considerations governing energy transition give lower priority to the goals of energy security and affordability as compared to environmental impact.
The Bundesrechnungshof’s report on the steps taken to implement energy transition provides a large number of suggestions and recommendations for improvement. On 28 April 2017, the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee, a sub-committee of the Budget Committee held a concluding debate on the report. The Public Accounts Committee’s proposed resolution has taken up nearly all of the recommendations made by the Bundesrechnungshof.
The Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure intends to decommission the existing Fehmarn Sound bridge and build a new bridge. The German SAI found major shortcomings in the relevant capital expenditure appraisal. The bridge is in a bad condition, also because the German Railways company has for many years neglected its duty of proper maintenance. As a result, the Public Accounts Committee demanded that the Ministry ensure the safe and smooth operation of the bridge until the structures designed to replace the former bridge are completed. As to the capital expenditure appraisal, the Committee wants the Ministry to include the option of retrofitting the existing bridge.
“VAT fraud causes significant shortfalls in tax revenues. In order to effectively combat VAT fraud, European Member States need to work more closely together. They need to share information more speedily about presumptive fraud cases and increase the quality of their data”, said Kay Scheller, President of the Bundesrechnungshof, on the occasion of the publication of a joint report of the supreme audit institutions of Austria, Germany and Hungary on combating VAT fraud.
The European Commission plans to introduce a set of harmonised and binding European Public Sector Accounting Standards (EPSAS) based on accrual accounting. Supplementary to the status report on the relevant facts and figures developed by the Federal Ministry of Finance (Budget Committee Paper 18/0027), the German Supreme Audit Institution (Bundesrechnungshof) advises the Budget Committee on the matter. In the present report, the Bundesrechnungshof discusses unresolved issues, chances and risks associated with the proposed EPSAS implementation.
The aim of introducing emission rights was to reduce the emission of gases harming the climate. The Federal Government intended to use the revenues from emissions trading to finance additional expenditure on energy transition and climate protection. To make up for the declining revenue resulting from falling prices in emissions trading, the Federal Government needs to cut planned expenditure or raise funds from other sources. In its report, the German SAI outlines the opportunities and risks of emissions trading at the European level so that these may be adequately considered in the context of the federal budget and the Energy and Climate Fund.
© 2018 Bundesrechnungshof
