State Audit Office of the Republic of Latvia

After the declaring the independence of the new Latvian state on 18 November 1918, there was an inevitable need for an institution which could supervise the functioning process of the state. Along with the creation of the executive authority the Temporary Government of Latvia on 2 December 1918 the State Audit Office of Latvia was founded. Simultaneously with the appointment of the new ministers, the prime minister of the Provisional Government Karlis Ulmanis appointed Eduard von Rosenberg – a German nobleman and lawyer, a representative German progressive bloc, as the Auditor General.

Before the proclamation of the independent state the territory of Latvia was under control by the Tsarist Russian State authorities, which had their own version of audit control institution. The archives with other valuable documents of this authority were taken to Russia in 1915. The majority of the former employees had sought refuge, leaving a lack of professionals for the new national control institution.

During the period of Bolshevik (Pēteris Stučka government) and German occupation (Andrievs Niedra government), the State Audit Office as an independent institution existed only formally. The work on the creation of the Law on the State Audit Office was temporarily interrupted in January 1919,due to Bolshevik invasion of Riga. The General Auditor Eduard von Rosenberg went abroad while the employees dispersed.

After the take-over of the largest part of the territory of Latvia by the Bolsheviks in the first half of 1919 the Soviet government created a Soviet-type control institution – the National Audit and Control commissariat – which lasted until mid-1920. The National Commissariat consisted of 11 head commissioners with and few department heads without voting rights. The alias of the State Controller in this ‘puppet government’ might be considered the National Audit Commissioner Augusts Sukuts.

However, after 16 April 1919, the coup by the loyalists of the Reich the first government of Andrejs Niedra was founded, which appointed Fricis Alberts Arājs as the Auditor General. Already in the same year on 17 June, he was replaced by Heinrich von Brimers. After the defeat of Landeswehr and Iron division which subordinated to the Niedra government in the Cēsis battle, on 8 July 1919 K.Ulmanis with the Latvian Temporary Government returned from Liepāja to Rīga. On 13 July, the Prime Minister set up his second cabinet and appointed Paul Mintz as the Auditor General.

The new State Audit law came into force on 16 August 1923. The Law on the State Audit Office stated that the board members were appointed by the Cabinet of Ministers, but confirmed by the Saeima. According to the law on the State Audit Office a special meeting of the State Audit Council with judicial functions was organized. In l924 with a pro-active participation of the State Audit Office the "State Budget Law," was prepared and adopted which laid the foundation and accustomed the state employees to the official budgeting practice.

On 13 November 1923 Robert Ivanov was elected as the Auditor General. Controller. He remained in his position until the coup d'état of 15 May 1934, when he decided to resign on his free will. After the coup, the State Audit Office was included in the executive structure and the Auditor was appointed by the Cabinet. Even during the authoritarian period, the first article of the Law on the State Audit Office which states that the State Audit Office is an independent, collegiate body, remained in force.

Eventually Kārlis Ulmanis, appointed the former Head of Department Jānis Kaminskis as the Auditor General, remaining in this post until he was appointed Minister of Finance on 25 October 1939. The position of Auditor General was then given to Kārlis Piegāze, the Head of the First Department, in which he remained until the Soviet occupation.

During World War II the archives of the State Audit Office and the National Bureau of Statistics were lost due to warfare; they had been housed in the premises of the National Archives of the Republic of Latvia located in the Rundāle manor. During the period from 1940 to 1991 The State Audit Office as such was non-existent, however the institutions for the management of the state’s public finances with different titles, tasks and objectives were set up and existed until 1991.

At the end of 1991 the Supreme Council of the Republic of Latvia adopted the law "On the State Audit Office", however the State Audit Office as an institution was established and became operational only in August 1992. On 28 October 1993 the Parliament passed a law re-establishing the law of 1923 "On the State Audit Office".

As a result of further development of the audit work in 1996 the State Audit Office created the Privatization Process Audit Department, and at the beginning of 1997 the Local Municipality Audit Department was established.

On 9 May 2002 the Parliament adopted the new "Law of the State Audit Office of the Republic of Latvia" which significantly strengthened the positions of the institution and extended the duties of the Audit Office thus including the task of auditing the use of the funding granted by the European Union, and improving the quality of auditing practice.

A reorganization of the structure of the State Audit Office in 2005 created a structure of six audit departments. Among five of these departments the audit areas were divided by sector, while the sixth department – the Audit, Methodology, Analysis and Development Department – became responsible for ensuring the development of audit methodology, strategic development and international co-operation, as well as the training of auditors and the control of audit quality.

The Auditor-General (head of the State Audit Office) is appointed for a renewable four-year term by the Saeima or Parliament.