Giorgi Gabitashvili, the Auditor General, introduced the Activity Report for 2024 of the State Audit Office to the Parliament.

 

“In 2024, the Office has taken numerous significant steps for the enhancement of the institutional, organizational and professional standards”, - he reported. 

 

58 audits, including: 13 - financial, 25 - compatibility, 4 - inter-agency compatibility, and 16 - efficiency audits have been conducted in 2024. 

 

“In total, the monetary indicator of the detected violations in 2024 constituted 24,5 million GEL, including the system gaps and pertaining to the ineffective, loss-making and non-targeted consumption of the budget assets, as well as the procurement and asset management issues”, - he stated.

 

According to him, stemming from the high-risk circumstances, 14 audit reports/certain information (including 12 cases on municipalities) have been submitted to the Prosecution Office. 

 

The Auditor General reviewed the system gaps and challenges. As per his account, the registration of the financial information in the budgetary organizations detected the system gaps.

“Since 2025, the Audit Office conducts the consolidated financial reporting audit of the Government, which allows to enesure the full coverage of the state budget, and on the other hand, to ensure the system estimation of the deficiencies in the reporting/registration at the central level”, - he stated.

 

As elucidated, 25 compatibility audits have been conducted in 2024, including 4 inter-agency audits. 

 

The audits have been conducted in 28 municipalities and 4 state enterprises. The priority and strategic direction of the Audit Office imply the efficiency audit studying the cost-efficiency and productivity of the budget resource consumption within the state programs and projects. 

 

According to the reporter, 16 efficiency audits were conducted in 2024. Speaking about the recommendations, the reporter noted that the Audit Office issued over 3,000 recommendations for the last five years, 20% of which pertain to the audits of 2024. 

74% of the recommendations are fully or partially fulfilled, while 18% are pending and 8% - unfulfilled. 

 

The reporter touched upon the relations with the Parliament, stressing that in view of enhancing the oversight activity in the public finance management sphere, the Audit Office attaches priority to the close cooperation with the Parliament and the Committees.

 

G. Gabitashvili accentuated the cooperation with the partners, noting that the Audit Office has ensured the audit of international organizations in the region since 2018.

 

“We believe that the recognition of international organizations indicates the high quality of our audits”, - he stressed. 

 

“The Audit Office serves as the Parliament’s “eyes”, a principle also upheld in Europe. The Parliament lacks a comparable mechanism to monitor the expenditure of the 35.5-billion-GEL Budget. The State Audit Office is one of Georgia’s most successful state agencies, characterised by high-quality independence, reliability, qualifications and impartiality. This is affirmed in assessments by the EU and international organisations and the unconditional opinions of the G4 auditing companies”, - Paata Kvizhinadze, Chair of the Budget and Finance Committee, stated.