Peer Review Report on the Independence of the Turkish Court of Accounts

Peer review refers to assessments conducted on the organisational structure or one or several of the functions of a supreme audit institution by one or several other supreme audit institutions in an independent and objective manner.

Within the scope of the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the Turkish Court of Accounts (TCA) and the Office of the Auditor General of Pakistan, a team from the SAI Pakistan conducted a peer review on the independence of the TCA and prepared a report. The work was designed and completed on the basis of the International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI) GUID 1900 on peer review.

“Independence of the TCA” was selected as the subject of the peer review in question. This assessment, in essence, covers an analysis on the criteria identified by INTOSAI Standards and other international manuals in relation to independence as well as on the current situation of the TCA.

In this respect, the peer review was conducted under eight separate titles identified in the Mexico Declaration as factors constituting the independence of supreme audit institutions:

• Legal mandate and legislation required for independence
• Independence of the head of SAI
• Independence in the activities of the SAI
• Access to information during audit
• Independence in reporting the audit results
• Independence in publishing the audit results and reports
• Monitoring of audit results
• Having adequate resources for the conduct of the audit

At the end of the studies on legislation and field works conducted by the SAI Pakistan, the conclusions of the peer review can be summarized as follows:

The legal mandate and legislation relating to the establishment and functions of the TCA are adequate to ensure its independence in fulfilling its duties,

There are no legal or physical barriers to the independence of the TCA while fulfilling its duties.