A follow-up audit was conducted to assess the implementation of the recommendations provided to the Prime Minister in the audit report on the Information System for Management and Monitoring of EU Funds in Bulgaria for the period from 1 January 2016 to 31 December 2021. The audit report included a total of 24 recommendations, which were designed to ensure the update and improvement of policies and procedures related to the management, administration, and use of the information system.

The National Audit Office’s newly published report reveals that the IT expenditure and investments of Estonian public authorities have doubled over the past six years, rising from €123 million to €257 million. The growth reflects both strategic decisions and broader market developments.

In our work at the State Audit Office of Hungary (SAO) we are constantly handed huge stacks of reports, PDFs, scanned letters and other documents that have no consistent format. Going through them by hand is slow, boring, and prone to mistakes.

Property tax in Kosovo* is an important source of revenue for municipalities and helps finance local public services such as street lighting, road maintenance, cleaning, and infrastructure investments. The Ministry of Finance, through the Department for Property Tax, has a leading and supervisory role in administering the property tax system at the national level.

The Government of Kosovo* has created the “e-Kosovo” platform as one of the developments to improve the provision of public services and increase the efficiency of the administration. The e-Kosovo platform is one of the systems of state importance, also classified at the national level for its importance, managed by the Information Society Agency-ISA. It currently offers 230 public services electronically and serves as a unique gateway for access to services from various institutions, contributing to the transparency and modernization of public administration.

In 2024, the National Audit Office of Lithuania (NAOL) launched an ambitious GovTech initiative to begin automating financial audit procedures - a step towards transforming the way auditors work with data.

Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) increasingly rely on evidence in digital formats – electronic documents, registries and databases – which have a direct impact on credibility and authenticity of audits (Stoykova, 2021). In parallel, CERT-EU reports show an increase in cyber-attacks, (CERT-EU, 2025) reinforcing the urgency of cybersecurity measures. Without robust controls, SAIs with jurisdictional powers – bearing in mind their specificities in terms of autonomy and legal frameworks – cannot guarantee reliable digital evidence, undermining their constitutional mission (Teodoro, 2025).

The Court of Audit of the Republic of Slovenia recently completed a comprehensive performance audit on the efficiency of providing IT support at the Institute of Oncology Ljubljana, covering the period from January 2022 to September 2024. The findings shed light on the crucial role of IT support in one of Slovenia’s leading healthcare institutions—and the challenges of keeping it aligned with rapid medical and technological progress.

The aim of the public service for the provision of administrative services is to ensure convenient, fast and high-quality solutions to issues necessary for citizens to exercise their constitutional rights and freedoms. In times of crisis and military risk, when physical access to administrative services is limited, digitalisation is one of the few ways to ensure such access and one of the key factors in supporting the economy and the stability of public administration.

As part of the Research and Training Hub project, the EUROSAI IT Working Group has developed an online training course titled “Introduction to Public Sector IT Audit” available at https://training.eurosai-it.org. The course is intended for anyone seeking foundational knowledge on how to address IT aspects within audit work. Its main goal is to improve the quality and effectiveness of modern audits, which increasingly involve IT components. Both non-IT auditors and beginner-level IT auditors will find the course a clear and accessible introduction to key IT auditing concepts.

EUROSAI IT Working Group is planning CIO network virtual meetings quarterly in 2026. Potential topics will include challenges and practices in using cloud services, IT contracts in a SAI, including centralization practices and cyber-security practices for a SAI.

On September 23, a seminar titled "Implementing Seamless E-Services: Big Challenges and Small Victories" was held, open to all members of the International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI). The seminar provided valuable insights from government, private sector, and supreme audit institutions, offering a comprehensive view of the opportunities and challenges linked to digital transformation.

Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) play a central role in promoting transparency, accountability, and good governance in the public sector [1]. The acceleration of digital transformation, especially through AI adoption, has become a strategic lever for modernizing public audits [2,3]. AI enables real-time data analysis, advanced anomaly detection, and automation of repetitive tasks, improving operational efficiency and freeing auditors for high-value work [2,3]. This trend aligns with global movements toward data-driven governance and agile audit mechanisms [4,5].

The 25^th International Congress of the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (INCOSAI), held in Sharm El-Sheikh, Arab Republic of Egypt, during the period October 27-31, 2025, witnessed extensive discussions on the Second Technical Theme of XXV INCOSAI, entitled “Using Artificial Intelligence Techniques in Auditing”. The sessions focused on how these technologies can be leveraged to enhance the quality of audit work, improve transparency and accountability, and support good governance in the public sector.

The use of technology in the field of auditing, especially in engineering projects, has become necessary in order to reduce time and effort, obtain accuracy at high speed and dispense with people in managing audit operations. There are also challenges facing the auditing process, including the accuracy of the equipment used, the available engineering software and obtaining the necessary data. 

Over the past two decades, the field of auditing has undergone a profound transformation driven by rapid developments in information technology. Once heavily dependent on manual examination of documents and paper-based records, auditing today relies increasingly on digital systems, artificial intelligence, and advanced analytical tools. This shift has not only enhanced audit quality, but has also improved efficiency, accuracy, and the speed of completing audit tasks—enabling auditors to better address the growing complexity of financial and technological operations.

SAI Somalia has emerged as a clear institutional success story in recent years, driven by deliberate reform, strong leadership, and practical innovation. A major pillar of this transformation has been the legal and operational strengthening of the Office of the Auditor General under Law No. 14 of 2023. Within this framework, the Office moved beyond traditional oversight methods and introduced modern systems that improved transparency, efficiency, and institutional credibility. One of the most visible achievements has been the design and rollout of a Contract Management System, which transformed how government contracts are registered, verified, and monitored.