At the Plenary session held on 28 June 2013 MPs listened to the report on the work of the State Audit Office in 2012, which was presented by Lasha Tordia, the Auditor General of Georgia. After completing the presentation, the Auditor General of the State Audit Office was responding to the questions of legislators and thereby stated: “11 conclusions of the State Audit Office of Georgia have been sent to Law Enforcement Agencies in 2011. Some of them have been acted upon and the sums of money have been returned.” FactCheck inquired about the accuracy of the facts indicated in the statement and decided to check how many conclusions were sent in 2011 by the State Audit Office to the Law Enforcement Agencies. In accordance with the Law on the State Audit Office, conclusions of the Office are sent to the Law Enforcement Agencies in order for appropriate measures to be taken. As we were told in the State Audit Office, their reports are sent to the Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia and of the Autonomous Republic of Ajara. According to the public information requested from the State Audit Office of Georgia, in 2011 only two conclusions have been sent to the Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia. In particular, those two included: the report and corresponding materials on the financial and compliance audit of LEPL Agricultural University of Georgia for the period from 1 January 2007 to 1 January 2010; financial and compliance audit report and corresponding materials on the financial-economic activity of the Regional Department of Registration and Privatization of State Property in Shida Kartli. The information provided by the State Audit Office is verified by a letter from the Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia. The Prosecutor’s Office confirms the fact of having received 2 letters from the State Audit Office in 2011. For relevant measures to be undertaken, one of them was sent to Tbilisi Prosecutor’s Office and another to Mtskheta-Mtianeti Regional Prosecutor’s Office. FactCheck also contacted Lasha Tordia personally. In the course of our conversation the Auditor General stated that the figure mentioned by him at the Parliamentary Session concerned the work of the State Audit Office in 2012, while his mentioning of the year 2011 was an unwitting mistake. We decided to verify this as well. Based on public information we requested, following documentations, concerning the audits conducted by the State Audit Office in 2012, were sent to the Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia:

1. Materials on the preliminary audit of LEPL Teaching University – Batumi State Maritime Academy;
2. Materials on the audit of the Ministry of Finance and Economy of Ajara A.R. – on the management (demolition of the building) of the property owned by Ajara A.R.
3. Materials on the financial and compliance audit of Kobuleti Municipality and the entities subordinate to it;
4. Materials on financial and compliance audit of Ltd. Batumi Clinical Hospital;
5. Materials on financial and compliance audit of Shuakhevi Municipality;
6. Report on the compliance audit of the Phthisiatric Services State Program from 1 January 2008 to 1 January 2011, in the LEPL Social Service Agency of the Ministry of Labour, Health and Social Affairs of Georgia;
7. Report on the financial and compliance audit of the state budget execution in the Ministry of Culture and Monument Protection in the period from 2010 to 2011;
8. Interim report of 2012 on financial audit of the Ministry of Education and Science;
9. Report on financial and compliance audit of the Supreme Council Apparatus of Ajara A.R.
10. Report on financial and compliance audit of the Ministry of Agriculture of Ajara A.R.
11. Report on financial and compliance audit of the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs of Ajara A.R.

As asserted in the report of State Audit Office, the Office conducted 57 audits in 2012. Among them: 41 - financial, 13 – compliance and 3 – performance audits. Auditing activities covered 2 803 589 thousand GEL of state funds and the sum of recorded violations amounted to 44 481 thousand GEL. According to the report of 2012 on the work of the State Audit Office, 4 individuals have become subject to criminal liability and 195 thousand GEL have been returned to the state budget based on the auditing materials (Report on the compliance audit of the Phthisiatric Services State Program from 1 January 2008 to 1 January 2011 in the LEPL Social Service Agency of the Ministry of Labour, Health and Social Affairs of Georgia) sent to Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia by the State Audit Office. Based on the appeal of law enforcement agencies, one auditor of the State Audit Office conducted financial-economic examinations of 6 organizations, following which 400 000 GEL have been transferred to the state budget. Following the recommendations issued by the State Audit Office after conducting audits, 16.6 thousand GEL have been returned to the state budget. In total, 611.6 thousand GEL have been chanelled to the state budget as a consequence of the work of the State Audit Office.   Conclusion Based on the information we received from the Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia and the State Audit Office, in 2011 only 2 conclusions were sent by the State Audit Office to the Prosecutor’s Office, while in 2012 the number of conclusions sent to the law enforcement agencies has indeed been 11. As the Auditor General explained to us personally, his mentioning of the year 2011 instead of 2012 was an unwitting mistake, which normally is not checked by us. However, considering the fact that our research had been carried out and it is of informative nature with regard to the work of the State Audit Office over the last two years, we made a decision to publish the article. Bearing in mind the fact that the Auditor General was presenting the State Audit Office report of 2012 and taking into account the explanation made to us by Lasha Tordia, FactCheck rates his statement as TRUE.