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Audit of Public Debt in Lithuania N ew challenges. Erika Latyšovič, Advisor Budget Policy Control Unit National Audit Office of Lithuania 23 October 2014 The Annual Meeting of INTOSAI working group on the Public Debt Seoul. The structure of the presentation:. I.
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Audit of Public Debt in Lithuania New challenges Erika Latyšovič, Advisor Budget Policy Control Unit National Audit Office of Lithuania 23 October 2014 The Annual Meeting of INTOSAI working group on the Public Debt Seoul
The structure of the presentation: I. • Annual Public Debt Reports prepared by the Ministry of Finance • Audit Opinion on 2013 Public Debt Reports II. • New function of the National Audit Office – Independent Fiscal Institution
I. Public Debt Reports On behalf of the Government, the Ministry of Finance drafts annual reports on: • Public debt • Government borrowing limits • Loans givenfrom funds borrowed on behalf of the State • State guarantees
Opinion on 2013 Public Debt Reports The purpose of the audit is to assess: • whether Government accounts in all material aspects are in compliance with legislative requirements, • reliability, accuracy and sufficiency of the data of public debt accounts, • compliance of Government borrowing with legislative requirements.
Structure of the Opinion on Public Debt Reports • Opinion on Public Debt Reports: • Audit opinion • Main conclusions and observations • Audit Report: • Recommendations • Data on public debt and analysis of debt indictors and trends • Audit findings • Implementation of last year’s recommendations
Audit opinion • Unqualified opinion on 2013 Public Debt Reports: the Public Debt Reports, in all material respects, were prepared and presented in accordance with the legislation governing the drafting of these reports. • Qualified opinion on the legality of borrowing: the audit identified a couple of municipalities and municipal budgetary institutions failing to comply with the established municipal borrowing limits and the municipal borrowing procedure laid down in relevant legislation.
Observations and recommendations • Public Debt Reports: • included obligations not actually assumed (estimated using statistical methods); • did not include over financial lease (leasing) obligations. • In order to ensure presentation of correct debt obligations actually assumed only by the government sector, the Ministry of Finance was recommended to improve the provision of data by public sector entities to the Ministry of Finance and to amend legislation on the drafting of public debt report accordingly.
II. Independent Fiscal Institution • Current context • Developments in relevant legislation • New function of the National Audit Office • Next steps
Current context Lithuania adopts the euro The European Union’s new economic governance Other important changes in fiscal surveillance and policy coordination
New function of the National Audit Office: monitoring the compliance to the rule on surplus in the government sector, rule on limiting growth in public expenditure, and rules on the budgets of government sub-sectors, assessing the progress towards the Medium Term Objective, monitoring the attainment of the structural impetus target, issuing opinion on the unusual event, endorsing the macroeconomic forecast.
Next steps • The Draft Constitutional Law and amendments of related laws are expected to be approved by the Parliament in late autumn. • Budget Policy Control Unit.