Before the presentation, the President of the Council of the State Audit Institution (DRI) Dr Dusko Pejovic said that the National Assembly is responsible for controlling the DRI, which duly submits regular reports. Control, which peer review ultimately is, is a good indicator of accountability, said Pejovic. Peer review is an external assessment of DRI’s work conducted by experts from other supreme audit institutions based on the ISSAI framework established in 2010. He said he was very pleased that SIGMA would be presenting the peer review principles today, which testifies to the institution’s commitment to its work. He went on to add that this was the first time DRI has undergone peer review in 12 years.

The “Supreme audit institution peer review and its significance for accountability and transparency” was presented on behalf of OECD and SIGMA by Alastair Swarbrick who emphasized the importance of the ISSAI international standards, focusing on the principles on good governance and DRI’s compliance with these principles which should help the institution operate more efficiently. Peer reviews are the key control mechanism he said and proceeded to explain what should be conducted in DRI by the end of the year. The institution’s credibility can be improved in the course of the process itself and its work can be brought up to international standards. He presented the benefits of the peer review for DRI such as identifying good and bad practices, the challenges affecting productivity, incentives to further improvements, etc. The peer review can be beneficial for the Parliamentary Committee as well viz. boost the credibility of DRI’s work and reports, encourage the development of DRI, guarantee that DRI is using its resources responsibly and help the Committee conduct an independent evaluation in its deliberations on the annual budget and DRI activity reports. Swarbrick said that it is SIGMA’s goal to help DRI develop and improve and went on to present the peer review approach. He stressed that peer review is not an audit, but an assessment. He presented the criteria for this assessment and the peer review process which will in this case focus on the DRI’s organizational system and professional capacities, results and outcomes. Finally, DRI will be given recommendations how to improve operation. Peer review reports focus on recommendations and comments for the supreme audit institution in question viz. DRI, which will be presented to both DRI and the National Assembly. The peer review process should be completed between March 2019 and early 2020.

The sitting was chaired by Committee Chairperson Dr Aleksandra Tomic and was attended by the following Committee members and deputy members: Zoran Bojanic, Olivera Pesic, Momo Colakovic, Goran Kovacevic, Sonja Vlahovic, Dr Milorad Mijatovic, Milan Lapcevic, Srbislav Filipovic, Vojislav Vujic, Zoran Despotovic and Veroljub Arsic.