Press Release

Center for Economic and Social Development (CESD) held National Conference on “Bridging the gap; developing audit system in local governments to improve accountability and enhance transparency in Azerbaijan” with support of Local Government and Public Service Reform Initiative (LGI) with participation of representatives of government institutes, Parliament, municipalities, international organizations, NGOs, academies and mass-media on October, 16, 2009. In the opening speech, Dr. Vugar Bayramov, the chairman of CESD, mentioned that within the program the center has been worked with 48 municipalities from 16 districts in Azerbaijan: “We hold seminars in pilot districts to educate municipalities’ members, internal auditors, and 2 books have been published and distributed within the program and media campaign conducted. We also listed policy recommendations to improve audit system in municipalities”

Vugar Bayramov also stated that according to the survey conducted by CESD half of municipalities in Azerbaijan have not applied audit yet and there are internal auditors only in few municipalities. Another problem is that local governments underestimate the importance of both external and internal audit. He added that according to the Law on “Taxation and Payments of Municipalities”, Local Governments should be audited once a year by independent auditors. It should be implemented till the 1^st of May and, results (audit’s opinion) should be sent to Ministry of Finance since it is necessary for the next year’s budget planning. Unfortunately, only 43 per cent of municipalities met legislative requirement last year.

Parliamentary member, municipality representatives, auditors, experts shared their opinions on conference subject.

For further information please contact CESD’s PR manager, Parvin Zeynalov. (597 0691)

Baku, Azerbaijan

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