Twenty four years ago, in 1997, the first State Audit Law was adopted. The Law defined the scope, requirements and manner of performing state audit. The State Audit Office started its journey in 1999, proving the necessity of its establishment as valuable institution for oversight of public funds and protection of citizens' interests. The State Audit Office path through all these years has been paved with lot of hard work and dedication, and the success being evident 22 years later.
Two decades ago, the State Audit Office started its operation as a public institution with small number of employees conducting dozens of audits, mainly regularity audits (financial together with compliance audit). The institution has grown professionally and today it has 112 employees and performs more than 70 audits per year, including performance audit, IT audit and follow-up audit.
Owing to the professionalism, integrity and impartiality, SAO today enjoys high credibility as considered one of the most recognizable institutions in the Republic of North Macedonia. The State Audit Office has also achieved satisfactory results internationally. Undoubtedly, the participation of the SAO as an active participant in congresses and conferences of INTOSAI and EUROSAI, the participation of many international operational groups, as well as the publication of articles on current topics and innovative approaches to auditing in newsletters and professional magazines.
The State Audit Office remains the supreme independent institution of the public sector that improves quality of its work and provides quality, credible and relevant reports to Parliament and the public. Given the great responsibility for ensuring highest level of quality of audit reports, the main task of SAO is to ensure visibility of identified shortcomings in the audit reports to the public, as well as positive effects of the audit recommendations on the operation of public sector entities aimed at improving the lives of Macedonian citizens.
We are committed to increasing transparency, accountability and responsibility in the use of public funds, so that the media and citizens are our allies in achieving SAO strategic objectives.
On this anniversary, we are proud to share with our associates the outstanding progress of SAO over the years. The high professional maturity, responsibility, independence, ethics and teamwork respecting the maxim "I am less and we are more" characterize the institution and its employees, thus contributing to quality and successful work of SAO in its efforts to ensure constitutional, financial and operational independence.
