Authors: Andreas Koutoupis, Panagiotis Kyriakogkonas, Panagiotis Bogiatzidis

Title: Internal Audit Activities at the central government bodies and the National Transparency Authority – The Case of Greece

Abstract

This study focuses on the need for Internal Audit in Greek public administration, and more specifically to Ministries and the National Transparency Authority, taking into account the existing national and international regulatory framework governing Internal Audit. It examines the existence, the structure, the reporting lines and the duties of Internal Audit Units based on publicly available information for the Ministries of Greece. Also, this study focuses on the role of the newly established Independent National Transparency Authority as the successor to the six largest audit bodies of the Greek public administration and analyzes its importance to the governance of public administration, through the analysis of the activity of the integrated Audit Bodies. The results showed that the majority of Ministries’ Internal Audit Units are at the level of Directorate at the organization structure of the Ministries, that the reporting line is directly to the Minister, and that their duties, as appear on their relevant organizations, are similar. Also, results showed that some Audit Bodies in the period 2015-2017, until their incorporation to the National Transparency Authority, according to Article 82 of Law 4622/2019, are more productive than others, in terms of audit work, and that triggers for audit commencement, execution and reporting may differ among Audit Bodies.

Keywords: Public sector, internal audit, Ministries of Greece, National Transparency Authority, audit activity Greece.