Out of the four constitutional audit criteria, on the basis of which NIK assesses the activity of audited entities, there is not much literature dedicated to integrity. The available literature usually provides a lexical definition of integrity only, emphasises its symbolic nature or presents it as a criterion that is inferior to legality and efficacy. The attempts that have been made to interpret the criterion of integrity do not refer to the practical interpretation that dates back to 1949. Whereas NIK, due to the lack of a legal definition, frequently used its right to define the standards of behaving with integrity in an authoritative manner. In his article, the author emphasises the importance of NIK’s defining of integrity in the non-legal and normative context, as well as presents the results of analyses of audit statements from seven Regional Branches of NIK, which prove that the interpretations adopted do not always fall into the available understanding of the notion of integrity.
Although auditing is considered an important field of legal studies, no separate methodological approach has been developed for it so far. In his article, the author supports the idea of distinguishing a new branch of law (audit law) and a new discipline of legal studies (audit studies). This distinction is justified by the substantial increase in the complexity of social relations and legal regulations since first such proposals appeared in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In fact, the ever-growing interest of jurisprudence in studying audit suggests that identification is already taking place. However, although auditing is considered a distinct field of legal studies, so far it has not been thoroughly examined from a theoretical perspective. Therefore, the author proposes a formal identification of audit law, audit studies and audit theory to stimulate a discussion on the whole audit system and audit lawfulness. A pivotal role in this breakthrough is played by the Supreme Audit Office which for years has been fostering audit studies.
To date, in audit studies the issue of legal relations between audit bodies and auditees has been discussed without differentiating the legal relation characteristic of auditing. Meanwhile, the President of NIK has several times emphasised the specificity of the relations between the Supreme Audit Office and its auditees. In response to complaints against NIK judged by administrative courts (in 2009 and in 2011), the President of NIK postulated to reject them as unacceptable, stating that “the cognition of the administrative court does not apply to the NIK audit activity, because the legal relation between NIK and an audited entity is not of administrative nature”. In his article, the author attempts to rationalise the stance of the NIK President by considering if, in the current state of the audit studies development, it is possible to differentiate the legal status related to auditing, and, if so, what its main characteristics are.
Auditors create a picture of the audited entities, while audits themselves often provoke stormy discussions, especially in cases when a breach of law has been found. That is why it is extremely important how the audited activity has been described by auditors, including the irregularities found. One of the notions that can make it difficult to understand the intention of the auditor is “negligence”. Its meaning is close to that of the term “irregularity”, which is commonly used by NIK on the basis of the provisions of the law. In his article, the author, making references to the literature and audit practice, has attempted to define the difference between these two notions.
PL
Kontrolujący kształtują obraz ocenianego podmiotu, zaś same kontrole wywołują często burzliwe dyskusje, zwłaszcza gdy stwierdzono naruszenie prawa. Dlatego tak ważny jest sposób opisywania badanej działalności, w tym nieprawidłowości. Jednym z pojęć, które mogą utrudnić odczytanie intencji kontrolującego, jest „uchybienie”, bliskoznaczne terminowi „nieprawidłowość”, który powszechnie stosuje NIK na podstawie upoważnienia ustawowego. Autor, odnosząc się do literatury i praktyki kontrolnej, stara się ustalić relacje pomiędzy tymi pojęciami.
Each lawful audit centers on discovering truth. Often times, revealing facts is far from ideal and entails some kind of truth creation, called by the author “the audit truth”. The audit statements of facts create their own normative and semantic reality. The audit truth is always to some degree subjective, uncertain, approximated and simplified. Nonetheless, it does not make it false. Imperfectness of reality’s description is hard to avoid. As such it has to be accepted only if it meets certain standards of discovery and description. The article, by revealing the nature of the audit truth, fills the gap in the literature that so far has been focused on the principle of the material truth as an ideal goal for auditors. The author argues that pursuing truth in audit deserves advanced and systematic studies by audit philosophy.
PL
Odkrywanie prawdy to niezbywalna cecha każdej praworządnej kontroli i wyraża się poprzez dążenie do urzeczywistnienia prawdy materialnej. Niemniej jednak ustalanie stanu faktycznego częstokroć odbiega od ideału i wiąże się z pewnego rodzaju kreacją rzeczywistości, którą autor nazywa prawdą kontrolerską. W artykule opisuje charakterystykę owej prawdy, która jak dotąd nie doczekała się naukowego zbadania. Oto dokonywane w trakcie kontroli ustalenia stanu faktycznego tworzą własną rzeczywistość funkcjonującą w przestrzeni normatywno-semantycznej. Prawda kontrolerska jest w mniejszym lub większym stopniu prawdą subiektywną, niepewną, przybliżoną i uproszczoną, co bynajmniej nie oznacza automatycznie jej kłamliwości. Niedoskonałość obrazu faktów to coś nieodzownego i musi zostać zaakceptowane, choć jednocześnie domaga się zachowania poprawności poznania i opisu. Odpowiednią przestrzenią badawczą do podejmowania elementarnych rozważań o granicach kontrolerskiego poznania prawdy jest filozofia kontroli.
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