Why Environmental Auditing Matters

We councluded a very successful year of our accounting and auditing program with a workshop on Environmental Auditing. Recently Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) around the world have expanded their practices beyond traditional financial and compliance auditing. This learning event allowed SAIs across South East Europe (SEE) to examine their role in ensuring sustainable development which requires combining economic growth and ecological concerns. The workshop also offered guidance on conducting audit activities with an environmental perspective.

The recently delivered workshop introduced participants with specifics of environmental auditing. Special attention was put on how to recognize and select relevant audit topics and on establishing suitable environmental auditing criteria and methods for carrying out environmental audits. It also presented and promoted best practices in environmental auditing and offered a forum for exchange of information and experiences among practitioners from SEE region. When auditing environmental issues, auditors find environmental topics and a planning phase of the audit particularly challenging. With this in mind, this workshop helped participants to understand the nature of environmental auditing, its specifics and allowed them to practice design of the environmental audit process.

The event’s program was also complemented with two guest speakers, Ms. Lučka Kajfež Bogataj, Professor from the Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, and Mr. Armando Di Jogo Simoes, Principal Auditor from the European Court of Auditors (ECA). On the occasion, Ms. Bogataj gave a lecture on trends and consequences of climate change. We spoke to Ms. Bogataj after the workshop about the climate change consequences and the role of SAIs in ensuring sustainable development. You are invited to play the below video to find out more.

Mr. Simoes presented the way audit processes are organized at his institution and showcased examples of environmental audit undertaken by the Court. Mr. Simoes discussed with us the role of the ECA in ensuring sustainable development.

The main part of the workshop consisted of group work assignments that were based on real case scenarios. Participants recognized a need for knowledge sharing in this area and expressed their appreciation for a high quality of the program and its delivery. We designed the program jointly with Ms. Jerneja Vrabič, Advisor to the Deputy President, from the Slovenian Court of Audit, who also prepared the case studies and delivered most of the program. We also captured activities and discussions in a story that represents a shared memory of this learning event.

The workshop took place on December 1–3, 2014 at the CEF.

This year we delivered seven regional workshops as part of our annual accounting and auditing program. All events concluded on a very successful note and proved the value of knowledge sharing and exchange of experiences among practitioners across the SEE. The auditing program delivered at the CEF assures professional development of practitioners. Many practitioners from Macedonia, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Slovenia who are coming to the CEF are also students or holders of the British Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) diplomas. On December 15 and 16, 2014 internal auditors from Montenegro and Slovenia concluded level 1 of the Training of Internal Auditors in Public Sector (TIAPS) and were awarded with an international certificate. Using this occasion, we would like to congratulate all successful candidates.