ESO, EU funded projects and universities to be controlled in 2017

Reform of the ESO public administration system, European funds for informatisation, universities and legal services for the state will be subjects of scrutiny by the Supreme Audit Office next year, according to TASR press agency. It has gradually been abandoning financial inspections and compliance checks and intends to focus significantly more attention on cross sectional performance assessments in order to ascertain efficiency in dealing with financial resources in public policies. Whereas performance assessment constituted only 2 percent of all audits in 2015, that number swelled to 20 percent in 2016, with the planned target for next year put at 43 percent. Auditors will inspect Operational Programme Informatisation of Society (OPIS) in order to evaluate processes ranging from public procurements to the conclusion of projects funded with money from the European Union. The Office suspects that inappropriately large amount of resources are being spent by the state on legal advise and studies which are then not put to any use. In 2017 it also wants to evaluate how universities and higher education facilities handle public resources and carry out strategic projects.