Czech Republic SAO Hosts Sustainable Energy Seminar

The Supreme Audit Office (SAO) of the Czech Republic, under the auspices of the Czech Republic Chamber of Deputies of Parliament Committees on Budgetary Control and Environment, hosted an international seminar on “Challenges in the Sustainable Energy Field” on April 27, 2017. The seminar’s aim was twofold: to present results on two international SAO projects and open discussion on trends and challenges in the fields of renewable energy, energy savings and sustainable energy field developments. Representatives of the European Court of Auditors (ECA) and the Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) of China, the Slovak Republic, Poland and the United States participated actively in the meeting.

The SAO is a member of the INTOSAI Working Group on Environmental Auditing (WGEA), which currently brings together 77 SAIs from around the world. Within this working group, the SAO has garnered a vast amount of experience to share with other SAIs in the environmental arena. In particular, the SAO’s focus is on common current issues with other countries.

The first project the SAO spearheaded was “Auditing Sustainable Energy: Guidance for Supreme Audit Institutions,” where cooperation was established with the SAIs of Australia, Canada, Estonia, Morocco, Norway, Poland and the United Kingdom. The project’s outcome included developed guidance on renewable energy resource audits to be used by SAIs during the course of audit work in this field.

Last year, the SAO completed a project on “Energy Savings” that resulted in a study focused on energy savings issues. The study, intended as a manual for audit work in this area, was created through collaboration among the SAIs of China, Norway, the Netherlands, the Slovak Republic and the United States.

The SAO has recently entered into an environmental project centered on “Greening Cities— Sustainable Cities” with its colleagues from the SAIs of China, Indonesia, Morocco, the Philippines, the Slovak Republic and the United States.

The high-level of international cooperation and continuous sharing of knowledge continues to facilitate taking on such challenges as climate change and sustainable development, challenges that not only affect the Czech Republic SAO, but SAIs and nations on a global scale.