Paper/Speech Details of Conference Program for the 14th NISPAcee Annual Conference Program Overview IX. Working Group on Integrity in Public Governance Author(s) Adriana Tiron Tudor Babes-Bolyai University Cluj Napoca Romania Title Concept of control within the public entity - Romania case study File Paper files are available only for conference participants, please login first. Presenter Abstract We refer in our research at control within the entities by the intermediate specific topics of internal audit and internal control. Only in the last half of the twentieth century, has so much attention been directed to them. One of the main management’s tasks is to keep under control, to controlling whole the entity. It is now well established that management itself is directly responsible for the design, maintenance and evaluation of its internal control systems. Developing these management tasks, the management is mandatory to make periodic evaluations of the control systems and to report on weaknesses. Doing so provides management with opportunities to understand its own programs and operations. Neglecting understanding often leads to serious problems. Internal auditing focuses on evaluation of the system of internal control. Our initial hypotheses was formulated as follow: In a modern public entity these two activities are developed, the role of internal controller and internal auditor are well defined and knew by the internal and external environment. The internal controller and auditor conduct them activities guided by an ethical code and professional standards. Our intention was to check if these hypotheses are valid in Romanian public sector entities. The research was carried out on the basis of the available sources and research methods (historical analyses, benchmarking with international references). First of all we analyzed the degree of correspondence between international and national codes of ethics. A second step in our research was the determination of how internal audit, new activity for Romanian public entities were implemented and perceived in public entities. For the second step we collect data by interviewing internal auditors and managers of public entities, by analyzing the country reports about implementing PIFC and Finance Minister reports about the harmonization degree of the national legislation with the acquis communautaire and the development of the institutional infrastructure necessary to its implementation by the time of accession. The main results of research are that in Romanian for public sector internal audit and control exist a legal and an institutional framework harmonized with international regulation. Following the recommendations of international professional organisations and due to national differences of culture, language, and legal and social systems, Romanian Ministry of Finance develop an own Code of Ethics for internal public auditors, which best fits Romanian environment. An other result regards the way internal audit is perceived and about the independency of internal auditors We conclude that by norms, the public internal audit is functionally independent. Practically, the public internal auditor is not entirely viewed as the first adviser of the entity manager. A misperception exist both at the level of the entity’s manager. There is also a negative behavior face the public internal audit role and functions: the public internal audit is simply assessed as being a common component of the internal control system under the entity’s manager. Unfortunately, the internal control and audit is not totally implemented and operated. The functionally independence of the public internal control (face to the entity’s manager) is rather declared and non-rejected than understood. As result, many audit reports are only convenient and have not the expected impact on the improvement of the entity’s activity, and the internal auditor didn’t receive by the manager a feedback of them activity.
