Of the Auditor General in Norway

A Brief Summary of the Activities of the Office

A. Read the text below.

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The Norwegian Constitution is based on the principle of the separation of power. The Constitution expresses this by allocating legislative powers to the Storting (parliament), executive powers to the Government (the King in Council) and juridical power to the courts of law. One of the Storting’s duty is to monitor the government and public administration[22], including the central government accounts. The Office of the Auditor General[23] is the Storting’s auditing and regulatory body[24] and by means of its auditing and monitoring work it helps to ensure that the use and management of central government funds are economically sound and in compliance with the decisions and intentions of the Storting. The office of the Auditor General[25] was established in 1816.

The office of the Auditor General is a control agency of the Storting and has an independent role in respect of the public administration. This means that the office of the Auditor General is to carry out its duties independently and autonomously and that is alone determines how to organize and perform its auditing and compliance monitoring duties. The office of the Auditor General reports the results of its auditing and compliance monitoring work to the Storting.

In recent years the public has had better access to the work of the office of the Auditor General. All the documents submitted to the Storting and all administrative reports are published by the office on its website. The work of the Office of the Auditor General is subject to the terms of the Freedom of Information Act.

The senior management of the Office of the Auditor General is composed of a board of five Auditors General appointed by the Storting for a term of five years. The composition of the Board of Auditors General reflects the parliamentary composition of the Storting. Although the Auditors General are elected politically, the Board acts impartially. The Chairman of the Board is the manager of the Office of the Auditor General.

The activities of the Office are grouped into seven departments. The auditing departments carry out three types of auditing: financial auditing, performance auditing[26] and corporate control.

Through its audits and advice the office of the Auditor General shall verify that the public revenues are paid in as intended and that public funds and assets are used and administrated in a financially sound way that complies with the decisions and intentions of the Storting.

The duties ascribed to the Office of the Auditor General include:

- auditing the central government accounts and all accounts rendered by central government agencies and other authorities liable to render accounts to the central government, including government corporations, public administrative bodies that have been granted special powers of authority, government funds and other bodies or enterprises where this is stipulated in separate legislation (financial auditing) performing systematic analyses of the economy, efficiency and effectiveness of the government administration on the basis of the decisions and intentions of the Storting (performance auditing);

- monitoring the management of the state’s proprietary interests in companies, banks etc (corporate control);

- advising the government administration on issues concerning accounting and financial management.

The Office of the Auditor General shall be objective and neutral in the performance of its duties. Audits shall be planned, carried out and reported as prescribed by the relevant legislation, instructions and good auditing practice in the Office of the Auditor General.

Дата добавления: 2014-12-23