Cel pracy Głównym celem publikacji jest analiza znaczenia i roli Europejskiego Trybunału Obrachunkowego w systemie zarządzania i kontroli wydatkowania środków pochodzących z budżetu Unii ...Europejskiej. Podstawową tezą publikacji jest twierdzenie, że Europejski Trybunał Obrachunkowy jest instytucją audytową i funkcjonuje w ramach systemu audytu. Ponadto umiejscowienie Europejskiego Trybunału Obrachunkowego wśród instytucji audytowych niesie ze sobą konieczność innego postrzegania tej instytucji. Celem deskryptywnym publikacji jest pokazanie powiązania pomiędzy ETO jako instytucją audytu a zaufaniem, jakie posiada, oraz analizą czy funkcjonując jako instytucja audytowa ma większy wpływ na właściwe wydatkowanie środków publicznych pochodzących z budżetu UE, niż będąc instytucją kontrolną. Materiał i metody Poprzez charakterystykę instytucji audytu oraz przedstawienie zakresu zadań i kompetencji ETO, opierając się na metodzie dogmatyczno-prawnej, jak również teoretyczno-prawnej oraz w niewielkim stopniu historyczno-prawnej autorka wykazuje, iż ETO nie jest, jak się powszechnie klasyfikuje w polskiej doktrynie prawa, instytucją kontrolą. Wyniki Przedstawiono że ETO nie jest instytucją kontrolną jak powszechnie się wykazuje w doktrynie prawa. Wnioski Przedstawiona powyżej analiza wykazuje funkcje i zadania ETO jako instytucji audytowej. Stąd też niezbędne jest uporządkowanie nomenklatury i klasyfikacji ETO w polskiej doktrynie prawa.
Objectives The main objective of the publication is to analyse the significance and role of the European Court of Auditors in the system of management and control of the spending of funds from the European Union budget. The basic thesis of the publication is that the European Court of Auditors is an audit institution and functions within an audit system. Furthermore, the positioning of the European Court of Auditors among audit institutions brings with it a different perception of the institution. The descriptive aim of the publication is to show the link between the ECA as an audit institution and the trust it enjoys, and to analyse whether, by functioning as an audit institution, it has a greater influence on the proper spending of public funds from the EU budget then by being a control institution. Material and methods By characterising the audit institution and presenting the scope of ECA's tasks and competences, based on the dogmatic-legal as well as the theoretical-legal and, to a small extent, the historical-legal method, the author shows that ECA is not, as it is commonly classified in the Polish legal doctrine, a control institution. Results It was submitted that the ECA is not a controlling institution as commonly shown in the legal doctrine. Conclusions The analysis presented above demonstrates the functions and tasks of ECA as an audit institution. Iit is necessary to sort out the nomenclature and classification of ECAs in the Polish legal doctrine.
This article is aimed at policy-makers and contributes to the debate on the shift towards performance and non-financial auditing in public sector organizations. It offers useful insights that ...national regulators and standard setters can consider when introducing new rules and standards in the audit sphere. Regulators and standard setters interested in teasing out the professional support that auditors can offer need to be aware of the need to blend economic efficiency targets with more sophisticated and sometimes not quantifiable assessment methods on specific topics.
This research aims to contribute to the debate on fraud on public funds and the work that public auditors perform on this important topic, providing a useful analysis for government officials ...concerned about accountability, good governance, and transparency. This article presents a retrospective analysis of the European Court of Auditors’ (ECA) role in combating and preventing fraud. Using innovative research tools such as the Valence Aware Dictionary and sEntiment Reasoner lexicon and other quantitative and qualitative research methods, evidence is found that ECA fraud audits reach a more negative tone in their conclusions than in the rest of the audits and that their audit recommendations on fraud are accepted to a lesser degree than the rest. Although in recent years the ECA has taken a more active role regarding fraud and stirring the public debate on this topic, its work is still hampered by its non‐jurisdictional statute. The results obtained contribute to the literature on fraud in the public sector by bringing empirical evidence on public sector fraud audit with data of an under‐researched and unique Supreme Audit Institution. This article opens up new avenues for future research and has practical implications for practitioners by offering them insights on their role on the issue, thus helping them to address some areas more prone to be affected by fraud.
This article draws on theories of person–organisation fit and leadership behaviour to explore how supportive leadership is related to communication practices, collaborative working practices and ...performance management practices and how these three practices, in turn, relate to public servants’ job satisfaction. A model of supportive leadership's direct and indirect effects on employees’ job satisfaction is empirically tested using responses to a survey administered to the European Court of Auditors (ECA) staff. The findings show that communication and collaborative working practices mediate the relationship between supportive leadership and job satisfaction. Supportive leadership positively relates to performance management practices, but these practices have no significant association with job satisfaction. While addressing a theoretical void in the field, this study also makes an empirical contribution by unveiling how a professional European public audit institution manages its human resources and the means it uses.
Points for practitioners
Elaborating on the relationship between leadership behaviour and person–organisation fit in the context of a supranational public entity helps to explain what motivates public servants.
The relationship between supportive leadership and public servants’ job satisfaction is mediated by two organisational practices: communication and collaborative working practices.
Transparent performance management practices do not mediate the relationship between supportive leadership and job satisfaction.
Public sector organisations with professional staff can centre their human resource management around effective communication and collaborative working practices to ensure greater employee satisfaction in the workplace.
Purpose
This paper explores how public audit institutions establish themselves as distinct actors on the public stage through communication practices. By focussing on the journey of the European ...Court of Auditors (ECA), this paper addresses the following research question: how does a transnational audit institution construct its actorhood through visual communication practices?
Design/methodology/approach
Using the theoretical framework of actorhood theory and inspired by the visual accounting methodology, this study explores the ECA actorhood journey through the visual analysis of front pages of its official journal (ECA Journal) from its inception in 2009 up to 2019. The visual analysis is conducted through content analysis and a two-step cluster analysis.
Findings
By showing how combinations of different visual artefacts have evolved
over time,
this study highlights the ways transnational public audit institutions, such as the ECA, construct their actorhood and position themselves on the public stage. It further reveals the underlying legitimacy mechanisms through which organisations such as the ECA position themselves in the public eye.
Originality/value
This study sheds light on the depiction of individuals and their contexts in interaction with each other and how this interaction reveals the development of the actorhood journey of the ECA over time.
Independent oversight institutions are critical components of the accountability landscape in modern democracies. This paper presents a framework for assessing the accountability powers of these ...watchdogs. This watchdog accountability index is an empirical tool to assess the key accountability powers of accountability forums that operate in a democratic constitutional context. The aim is to provide a richer evidence base to assess evolving external accountability arrangements and their effectiveness. Our approach breaks down the concept of watchdog accountability power into three distinct, conceptually coherent dimensions. We apply the accountability index to assess the strength of one of the main watchdog institutions in the EU, the European Court of Auditors in 2017. Data were collected by means of a study of secondary sources and by an expert survey.
Purpose
This paper aims to contribute to research on public sector sustainability reporting, by focussing on the sustainability reporting of EU institutions and agencies. It seeks to examine to what ...extent the EU is leading by example in this area and to highlight the challenges for developing sustainability reporting at EU level.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is based on the European Court of Auditors’ (ECA) review on reporting on sustainability and presents the results of qualitative research, including a survey conducted among EU institutions and agencies. Additional secondary literature analysis puts the review's findings into the current research context on sustainability reporting.
Findings
The paper provides an overview of how the EU and its institutions and agencies report on sustainable development. It finds that the EU, as well as its institutions and agencies, are not yet leading by example on sustainability reporting. Of the 53 EU institutions and agencies surveyed, only 2 published sustainability reports. Additionally, the paper identifies key challenges for sustainability reporting in the public sector and highlights future research areas.
Originality/value
This is the first academic article on sustainability reporting of EU institutions and agencies. It contributes to our understanding of the status and challenges of public sector, supranational sustainability reporting and the auditing of such activities.
Romania has benefited until now by European funds destined to the development of agriculturalsector and rural environment during two periods of time: pre-adherence period 2000-2006 whenfunds were ...accessed through SAPARD program and the post- adherence period which isconstituted in two programming periods, namely programming period 2007-2013 andprogramming period 2014-2020 which allows accessing resources from the European AgriculturalGuarantee Fund (EAGF) and European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD). Theaudit of these certain European funds consists in an activity which is complexly developed both innational institutions such as Audit Authority, as well as in European institutions like EuropeanCourt of Auditors. Through the audit mission the acquiring of a reasonable insurance that theEuropean funds are managed and used in a correct manner, is aimed.
Abstract The European Court of Auditors (ECA), established in 1977, is the external auditor of the EU budget. It was given full EU institutional status in 1993. The Treaty of Amsterdam reaffirmed its ...independence and extended its audit powers. Based in Luxembourg, it employs around 900 people, of whom less than half are auditors. The ECA is meant to carry out its audit tasks in close cooperation with the supreme audit institutions (SAIs) at the national level. Through its work, it shapes and adopts new audit standards that guide its practice. It is member of International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI) (1953), a forum that brings together professional and technical experts worldwide through working groups and task forces. Drawing on Oliver Buntrock’s notion of ‘micro-institutionalisation’, this article examines how and why the ECA formally engages in standard-setting at the international level. Drawing on primary documents and interviews, it analyses socialization processes and considers motives for participation. The article argues that membership of INTOSAI has helped bolster the ECA’s professional and technical legitimacy over 20 years, and reinforced its independence vis-à-vis its main stakeholders, the European Parliament and European Commission. The paper contributes to our understanding of how a lesser-known EU body contributes to the evaluation of EU budgetary spending.
This article examines the institutionalization of Community governance in the area of audit in the period prior to the establishment of the European Court of Auditors. Drawing on the literature on ...institutionalism and early supranational governance, it puts forward an original framework for analysing institutional dynamics that distinguishes between the institutional and the organizational/individual level, and between political and social space both inside and outside the institution. It provides a way of identifying the functions of institutions-in-the-making and distinguishing the locations of actor interactions. It then applies this framework and expectations to a longitudinal analysis of the Audit Board of the European Communities, based on the close reading of the minutes of more than 200 meetings over two decades. It argues that the rule system and normative order of the Board, as well as Community audit arrangements more broadly, resulted from various patterns of intra- and inter-institutional interaction that brought resistance, conflict and contestation.
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