The Supreme Audit Chamber of Kazakhstan and the World Bank will continue cooperation to improve the efficiency of state audit

The Supreme Audit Chamber of Kazakhstan and the World Bank will continue cooperation to improve the efficiency of state audit

The implementation of joint projects in the field of improving the efficiency of the state audit system was discussed by the Chairman of the Supreme Audit Chamber Mr. Alikhan Smailov, the World Bank’s Regional Director for the Central Asia region Ms. Tatiana Proskuryakova and the World Bank Country Manager for Kazakhstan Mr. Andrei Mikhnev.

This year, the World Bank has allocated funding for a regional project to support the supreme audit institutions of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. Trainings in online and face-to-face formats on performance audit and financial audit have already been conducted within the project. Respective methodological guidelines have also been developed.

"Their testing will be carried out as part of a joint pilot audit, which is scheduled to be held in October in Kyrgyzstan. The Supreme Audit Chamber of the Republic of Kazakhstan has already formed an audit group that will participate in the pilot audit," Alikhan Smailov emphasized.

Within the framework of the regional project, it is also planned to exchange experience with the supreme audit institution of one of the European countries on improving state audit. And at the final stage, a specific plan for monitoring and reviewing audit procedures will be developed.

"We appreciate the assistance provided by the World Bank to the supreme audit institutions of the Central Asian region. I hope that this project will contribute to the dynamic development of the state audit systems of our countries," said the Chairman of the SAC of Kazakhstan.

He also highlighted the importance of the World Bank's Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability Assessment (PEFA) project. The organization would like to hold it again in Kazakhstan in 2024-2025. For his part, Alikhan Smailov stressed the readiness of the Supreme Audit Chamber of the Republic of Kazakhstan to contribute to this initiative.

It has to be noted that the latest PEFA assessment for Kazakhstan was published in 2018. In general, it assesses 7 dimesions of the public finance management system performance:

  • budget reliability, transparency;
  • management of assets and liabilities;
  • policy-based fiscal strategy and budgeting;
  • predictability and control in budget execution;
  • accounting and reporting;
  • external scrutiny and audit.

In turn, Tatiana Proskuryakova thanked the Supreme Audit Chamber for productive cooperation and noted that the SAC has been a reliable partner for the World Bank for many years. According to her, the SAC can play a significant role in improving the efficiency and accelerating the implementation of the World Bank’s projects for Kazakhstan in various industries.

In her speech, she also stressed the importance of re-evaluating PEFA for the Republic of Kazakhstan.

"This project is very important. We hold it in all countries. In Kazakhstan, the last assessment was in 2018. It is time to update it, as this information will be important for the management of public resources," she said.

During the meeting, the parties also touched upon issues of improving the efficiency of using borrowed funds, the introduction of new technologies in the implementation of projects in the regions and a number of others.