References: Constitution of the Republic of Kosovo, Article 136: Auditor-General of Kosovo 1. The Auditor-General of the Republic of Kosovo is the highest institution of economic and financial control. (Constitution of the Republic of Kosovo, [ LINK ])

Law No. 03/L-075 on the Establishment of the Office of the Auditor General of Kosovo and the Audit Office of Kosovo, Article 5 5.1 The Audit Office of Kosovo is hereby established. (Official Gazette of the Republic of Kosovo, [ LINK ]" target="_blank">[ LINK ])

Law No. 03/L-075 on the Establishment of the Office of the Auditor General of Kosovo and the Audit Office of Kosovo, Article 3: Powers and Responsibilities of the Auditor-General 3.1 The Auditor-General shall report to the Assembly. 3.2 The Auditor-General shall annually conduct a Regularity Audit of the Kosovo Consolidated Budget, budget organizations, including but not limited to the Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo, the Office of the President of the Republic of Kosovo, each Ministry and executive agency, municipalities, independent bodies, the Central Bank of the Republic of Kosovo (CBK), and other entities that are either more than 50 percent publicly owned or receive funding from, or provide dividends or other non tax revenue to, the Kosovo Consolidated Fund including but not limited the Kosovo Customs Service, the Kosovo Privatization Agency and the Ombudsperson. (Official Gazette of the Republic of Kosovo, http://www.gazetazyrtare.com)

References: Constitution of the Republic of Kosovo, Article 136: Auditor-General of Kosovo 3. The Auditor-General of the Republic of Kosovo is elected and dismissed by the Assembly by a majority vote of all its deputies on the proposal of the President of the Republic of Kosovo. 4. The Assembly decides on the dismissal of the Auditor-General of the Republic of Kosovo by a two thirds (2/3) majority of all its deputies upon the proposal of the President of the Republic of Kosovo or upon the proposal of one third (1/3) of all its deputies. 5. The mandate of the Auditor-General of the Republic of Kosovo is five (5) years with the possibility of re-election to only one additional mandate.

Constitution of the Republic of Kosovo, Article 138: Reports of the Auditor-General of Kosovo 2. The Auditor-General of the Republic of Kosovo submits an annual report on the activities of the office to the Assembly. (Constitution of the Republic of Kosovo, [ LINK ]" target="_blank">[ LINK ])

Constitution of the Republic of Kosovo, Article 157 Until the end of the international supervision of the implementation of the Comprehensive Proposal for Kosovo Status Settlement, dated 26 March 2007, the Auditor-General of the Republic of Kosovo shall be an international appointed by the International Civilian Representative. (Constitution of the Republic of Kosovo, http://www.kushtetutakosoves.info/repository/docs/Constitution.of.the.Republic.of.Kosovo.pdf)

Law No. 03/L-075 on the Establishment of the Office of the Auditor General of Kosovo and the Audit Office of Kosovo, Article 5 2.1 The Auditor-General shall carry out his or her functions independently and not subject to the direction or control from any other person or institution. (Official Gazette of the Republic of Kosovo, [ LINK ])

References: Yes, it is, at least as long as I will be leading it - I don't know what will happen afterwards. It is legally protected, whereas in practice OAG's independence has not yet been tested through. (Interview with Mr. Lage Olofsson, Auditor General of Kosovo | Tuesday, September 22, 2009, Prishtina, Kosovo)

Yes, the Auditor General is appointed for a term of five years, as provided for by the Law on Office of Auditor Genera (OAG). (Interview with an independent policy expert | Tuesday, September 22, 2009, Prishtina, Kosovo)

Yes. (Interview with an international policy adviser | Friday, September 18, 2009, Prishtina, Kosovo)

The responsibility for removal of the director of the agency is on the International Civilian Representatives who answers to European Parliament, which makes me believe that the head of agency protected from removal without relevant justification. (Interview with Mr. Ramadan Ilazi, Executive Director, FOL Movement, Prishtina, Kosovo | Tuesday, September 22, 2009, Prishtina, Kosovo)

Yes, so far. (Interview with Mr. Shpend Ahmeti, Independent Public Policy Expert | Executive Director, Institute for Advanced Studies GAP, Prishtina, Kosovo | Wednesday, September 23, 2009, Prishtina, Kosovo)

References: Yes and no. For the time being, our staff is sufficient to carry out the tasks currently being carried out, which is not yet in line with international standards, and we will for sure need more staff to develop the institution in line with these standards. (Interview with Mr. Lage Olofsson, Auditor General of Kosovo | Tuesday, September 22, 2009, Prishtina, Kosovo)

More or less; in terms of numbers, OAG has sufficient staff, but it still needs to increase the capacities of its existing staff. (Interview with an independent policy expert | Tuesday, September 22, 2009, Prishtina, Kosovo)

Yes. (Interview with an international policy adviser | Friday, September 18, 2009, Prishtina, Kosovo)

Yes, it has professional and full-time staff, yet the question is whether they act professionally. In my opinion, there are problems in terms of motivation, due to their low salaries. (Interview with Mr. Shpend Ahmeti, Independent Public Policy Expert | Executive Director, Institute for Advanced Studies GAP, Prishtina, Kosovo | Wednesday, September 23, 2009, Prishtina, Kosovo)

The OAG has a total of approximately 100 staff, about two-thirds of whom are auditors. The OAG has recognised that training needs are substantial due to the significant level of accountancy and audit training required for staff to obtain a professional qualification and to acquire the practical experience of translating theory into practice. The training programme offers high quality training in all areas that are relevant for a modern external auditor. The criterion to be qualified to perform audits is certification as an accountant, followed by a minimum of three years' training and work experience. Trainees carry out a ten-month intensive accounting and audit training. The training programme is completed with training-on-the-job in outsourced audits. The OAG has continued to conduct intensive training for more than 60 trainee auditors. However, staff turnover is high, as staff leave the OAG as soon as they have passed their examinations. The main reason for this is that the salaries for OAG auditors are significantly lower than comparable salaries in the private sector. (Kosovo External Audit: Assessment May 2008 pg. 2, SIGMA Support for Improvement in Governance and Management, May 2008, [ LINK ])

References: Yes of course. (Interview with Mr. Lage Olofsson, Auditor General of Kosovo | Tuesday, September 22, 2009, Prishtina, Kosovo)

Yes, it does. The institution which has appointed the Auditor General also gives political support to the independence of the OAG, plus some financial support (the salaries of the Auditor General and one of its advisors). (Interview with an independent policy expert | Tuesday, September 22, 2009, Prishtina, Kosovo)

Yes. (Interview with an international policy adviser | Friday, September 18, 2009, Prishtina, Kosovo)

So far the audit agency has proven to be independent. The International Civilian Office has the competency to appoint the Auditor General. (Interview with Mr. Ramadan Ilazi, Executive Director, FOL Movement, Prishtina, Kosovo | Tuesday, September 22, 2009, Prishtina, Kosovo)

Yes. (Interview with Mr. Shpend Ahmeti, Independent Public Policy Expert | Executive Director, Institute for Advanced Studies GAP, Prishtina, Kosovo | Wednesday, September 23, 2009, Prishtina, Kosovo)

References: Yes, we do receive funding regularly, yet so far it has proven to be insufficient. When I took the office, the agreement with the Kosovan authorities has been to increase OAG's budget for 20 percent every new budget year; on the contrary, our budget for this year is 20 percent lower compared to the last year. While being accountable to the Assembly of Kosovo, another shortcoming is financial dependence on the Government of Kosovo, and it is difficult to overcome such a shortcoming, simply due to the fact that the latter is politically stronger than the former. Moreover, the budget spending model applied by the Kosovo Treasury also limits us in terms of the way we need to distribute internally and spend the budget we are provided with. (Interview with Mr. Lage Olofsson, Auditor General of Kosovo | Tuesday, September 22, 2009, Prishtina, Kosovo)

Yes, it is regular, but insufficient for the development of the institution in compliance with international audit standards. (Interview with an independent policy expert | Tuesday, September 22, 2009, Prishtina, Kosovo)

Yes. (Interview with an international policy adviser | Friday, September 18, 2009, Prishtina, Kosovo)

Yes. (Interview with Mr. Shpend Ahmeti, Independent Public Policy Expert | Executive Director, Institute for Advanced Studies GAP, Prishtina, Kosovo | Wednesday, September 23, 2009, Prishtina, Kosovo)

References: OAG produces annual audit reports, which start to be drafted in March each year and are finalized and published in August. Yes, all our reports are publicly available as soon as they are finalized. They can be found online, on our website, but we also send them to all the public institutions audited. (Interview with Mr. Lage Olofsson, Auditor General of Kosovo | Tuesday, September 22, 2009, Prishtina, Kosovo)

Yes, this has started from this year. All the OAG audit reports are regularly published on its website. (Interview with an independent policy expert | Tuesday, September 22, 2009, Prishtina, Kosovo)

Yes. (Interview with an international policy adviser | Friday, September 18, 2009, Prishtina, Kosovo)

Yes. (Interview with Mr. Ramadan Ilazi, Executive Director, FOL Movement, Prishtina, Kosovo | Tuesday, September 22, 2009, Prishtina, Kosovo)

Yes. (Interview with Mr. Shpend Ahmeti, Independent Public Policy Expert | Executive Director, Institute for Advanced Studies GAP, Prishtina, Kosovo | Wednesday, September 23, 2009, Prishtina, Kosovo)

References: No, so far our recommendations have not been addressed. We are currently working with the public institutions on establishing a system of dialogue designed to make Ministers and managers of all auditees directly accountable to our findings and recommendations, which would help us to follow-up on our recommendations more easily. (Interview with Mr. Lage Olofsson, Auditor General of Kosovo | Tuesday, September 22, 2009, Prishtina, Kosovo)

It does very rarely. So far only a few recommendations given by OAG have been implemented by the public institutions concerned. (Interview with an independent policy expert | Tuesday, September 22, 2009, Prishtina, Kosovo)

Yes, though not consistently. (Interview with an international policy adviser | Friday, September 18, 2009, Prishtina, Kosovo)

No, so far most of the government bodies have failed to implement the audit report recommendations. For example, the Ministry of Health implemented only one (1) recommendation out 8 recommendations contained in the 2008 Audit Report of the Ministry of Health. (Interview with Mr. Ramadan Ilazi, Executive Director, FOL Movement, Prishtina, Kosovo | Tuesday, September 22, 2009, Prishtina, Kosovo)

No. (Interview with Mr. Shpend Ahmeti, Independent Public Policy Expert | Executive Director, Institute for Advanced Studies GAP, Prishtina, Kosovo | Wednesday, September 23, 2009, Prishtina, Kosovo)

Peer Review Comments: Audit reports are often ignored.

References: No, the police and judiciary are responsible to investigate. We can just provide them with our findings. (Interview with Mr. Lage Olofsson, Auditor General of Kosovo | Tuesday, September 22, 2009, Prishtina, Kosovo)

I do not think so. (Interview with an independent policy expert | Tuesday, September 22, 2009, Prishtina, Kosovo)

Yes. (Interview with an international policy adviser | Friday, September 18, 2009, Prishtina, Kosovo)

Yes, they perform independent audits to government institutions. (Interview with Mr. Ramadan Ilazi, Executive Director, FOL Movement, Prishtina, Kosovo | Tuesday, September 22, 2009, Prishtina, Kosovo)

Yes. (Interview with Mr. Shpend Ahmeti, Independent Public Policy Expert | Executive Director, Institute for Advanced Studies GAP, Prishtina, Kosovo | Wednesday, September 23, 2009, Prishtina, Kosovo)

References: Constitution of the Republic of Kosovo, Article 41: Right of Access to Public Documents 1. Every person enjoys the right of access to public documents. 2. Documents of public institutions and organs of state authorities are public, except for information that is limited by law due to privacy, business trade secrets or security classification. (Constitution of the Republic of Kosovo, [ LINK ])

Law No. 03/L-075 on the Establishment of the Office of the Auditor General of Kosovo and the Audit Office of Kosovo, Article 3 d) copies of the report of the Auditor General shall be made available to the public. (Official Gazette of the Republic of Kosovo, [ LINK ]" target="_blank">[ LINK ])

Law No. 03/L-075 on the Establishment of the Office of the Auditor General of Kosovo and the Audit Office of Kosovo, Article 4 4.9 The Auditor General shall not publish or otherwise disclose in a public report any information, which is classified by law as confidential information, 4.10 If the Auditor General omits from public report information pursuant to paragraph 9 of this Article, the Auditor General shall prepare and submit to the Presidency of the Assembly of Kosovo, upon its written request, a confidential report identifying such information and providing justification for their omission. (Official Gazette of the Republic of Kosovo, http://www.gazetazyrtare.com)

References: Yes, they can have them as soon as they are public. (Interview with Mr. Lage Olofsson, Auditor General of Kosovo | Tuesday, September 22, 2009, Prishtina, Kosovo)

Yes, they can, as soon as they are finalized and published. OAG drafts and publishes annual audit reports. (Interview with an independent policy expert | Tuesday, September 22, 2009, Prishtina, Kosovo)

Yes, on the OAG website. (Interview with Mr. Ramadan Ilazi, Executive Director, FOL Movement, Prishtina, Kosovo | Tuesday, September 22, 2009, Prishtina, Kosovo)

Yes. (Interview with Mr. Shpend Ahmeti, Independent Public Policy Expert | Executive Director, Institute for Advanced Studies GAP, Prishtina, Kosovo | Wednesday, September 23, 2009, Prishtina, Kosovo)

References: There is no cost involved. (Interview with Mr. Lage Olofsson, Auditor General of Kosovo | Tuesday, September 22, 2009, Prishtina, Kosovo)

There is no cost involved. (Interview with an independent policy expert | Tuesday, September 22, 2009, Prishtina, Kosovo)

Audit Reports are available on the OAG website and can be accessed for free. (Interview with Mr. Ramadan Ilazi, Executive Director, FOL Movement, Prishtina, Kosovo | Tuesday, September 22, 2009, Prishtina, Kosovo)

Yes. (Interview with Mr. Shpend Ahmeti, Independent Public Policy Expert | Executive Director, Institute for Advanced Studies GAP, Prishtina, Kosovo | Wednesday, September 23, 2009, Prishtina, Kosovo)