Dimitar Glavchev has been a member of parliament, speaker of parliament, foreign minister and acting prime minister. He has often been at the center of heated debates, but for a year he has been away from active politics again. As chairman of the Chamber of Accounts, Dimitar Glavchev still has many questions — especially since this year the institution celebrates 145 years since its establishment.
From 1995 to today, the management of the Court of Accounts has been reduced by half, the philosophy of legislation has changed fundamentally, and the shortest summary is as follows: “It functioned as a collegial body with a large number of members, but over time the legislator decided that this was “an opportunity for party feeders“, explained Dimitar Glavchev to Nova TV.
“Over 10,000 audits — the number is impressive. There are 14,000 recommendations made to the audited entities, and the interesting thing is that nearly 70%, or even more, have been implemented. It is particularly important that in recent years this percentage has been increasing. In fact, this is the numerical measure of what the Court of Accounts has done. Much more importantly, however, hundreds of billions of errors in the accounting reports of all those who participated in the process have been eliminated. When there is evidence of crimes, we are obliged by law to notify the prosecutor's office and we do so. Over 300 such reports have been submitted," Glavchev explained.
Over these 30 years, over 1,800 reports have reached the State Financial Inspection Agency, and another 1,000 - to the Public Procurement Agency - an area in which many of the deviations over the years are reported. The object of inspections are also political parties, their campaigns and annual financial reports.
“I would say with satisfaction that political parties are improving their accountability - this is the conclusion I can draw, especially for the parties represented in parliament. I would say that an improvement in their accountability is being noted. There are violations, but they are usually from smaller political entities that are running in elections for the first time. There are more violations in local elections”, said Glavchev.
What do citizens expect from the Court of Auditors? Inspections in sectors of public importance: economy, energy and, above all, security that their money is not being misused.
“This is what we are striving for. Don't forget that in addition to monitoring citizens' money, we are also taxpayers. They expect inspections more in the field of economy and energy, as well as in social policy. They are most interested in how funds are used in municipalities. There are problems there. But the good thing is that after we point out the problems, a large part of them are taken into account and eliminated”, said Glavchev.
Audit activity is also changing and today artificial intelligence is already part of it. And with the most modern technologies, tonight the citizens of Sofia can see the history of the National Audit Office, its present and its vision for the future.
„We are already applying artificial intelligence, but even more importantly, we have a pilot project together with INSAIT, which is precisely for the implementation of artificial intelligence in audit activities. It is almost ready and will be applied in the field of public procurement. It will replace part of the work and time that auditors spend on the most routine procedures, but in no case can it replace them completely”, said Glavchev.
The National Audit Office has another important task - to monitor the implementation of budget funds.
„I cannot comment on a budget that has not even been submitted to the Council of Ministers. "I call on all participants in this council to show statesmanship, because there is nothing better than having an adopted budget," said Glavchev.