The World Bank has published the Supreme Audit Institutions Independence Index. The CAERC head of department Ayaz Museyibov told that according to the report, the World Bank selected Azerbaijan as one of the countries with best Supreme Audit Institution (i.e. Chamber of Accounts) Independence performance globally.

The analysis of the report demonstrates that only 2 countries globally scored 10 and were assessed as having “very high independence”; 17 countries had “high independence”; 33 countries had “substantial independence”; 37 countries had “moderate independence”, and 29 countries had “low independence”.

It should be mentioned that scoring 9.0-9.5 points, the Supreme Audit Institution of Azerbaijan is ranked as having “high independence”, which demonstrates high-level compliance of supreme audit institution with the requirements of most international indicators of independence. In addition, among regional countries, Turkey, Georgia, and Russia are in the same group with Azerbaijan. Moldova, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Tajikistan ranked lower in the appropriate sequence.

The World Bank’s experts emphasize in the report, which assesses 118 countries, the need to ensure the independence of the Supreme Audit Institutions globally in line with the 1977 Lima Declaration. Thus, independent and effective audit bodies play a critical role in promoting good governance, transparency, and accountability, and make positive contribution to monitoring of measures implemented in terms of the sustainable development. In this regard, the independence of audit institutions is of particular importance. Along with that, the report mentioned such key challenges for Supreme Audit Institutions as political interference in audit procedures on a global scale, problems in accessing the necessary information, lack of the ability to enforce compliance with their audit findings, weak interactions with parliament etc.

The methodological basis of the relevant report consists of a total of 10 indicators, including international standards, as well as practice, legal and financial issues, mandate, and scope. In details, the indicators are as follows: constitutional and legal framework, transparency in the process for appointing the heads of the Supreme Audit Institution, financial autonomy, types of audits, operational autonomy, staffing autonomy, audit mandate, audit scope autonomy, access to information, as well as right and obligation on audit reporting. The highest score is 10, which demonstrates that an institution  completely complies with all independence criteria.

For information, once in 2 years, the International Budget Partnership also assesses the independence of audit institutions on the basis of the Open Budget Survey. According to the latest report, Azerbaijan scored 89 points for the implementation of audit procedures. The survey also noted the audit procedures were implememented adequately in the country.