Russia Accounts Chamber ready to assist Azerbaijan in sports audit

/By AzerNews/

By Amina Nazarli

Russia and Azerbaijan signed a renewed agreement that paves the way for further cooperation between the Supreme Audit Chambers of both countries.

The agreement was inked by Tatyana Golikova, the chairman of the Russian Accounts Chamber and her Azerbaijani counterpart Vugar Gulmammadov, during his visit to Moscow, Russia.

Considering that few days left before the end of the 1st European Games in Baku, Golikova said that Russia is ready to share the experience of auditing large-scale sporting events with Azerbaijan.

Baku 2015 is a multi-sport competition, which has attracted about 6,000 athletes from 50 countries in Europe. The event features twenty sporting events, 16 of which are Olympic, while the other four—karate, basketball 3x3, beach soccer, and sambo—are new sports to this format.

“We have accumulated some experience in maintenance and inspection of such activities, and are ready to share it,” Golikva said.

The Russian Accounts Chamber has had experience with inspection of large sporting events, disclosing the budget for Sochi-2014 Winter Olympic Games. The cost of preparation for and managing the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in Sochi in February 2014 totaled 324.9 billion rubles ($6.01 billion).

The heads of the both accounting chambers noted the development of inter-state relations between the two countries, thus underlining the cooperation of Supreme Audit Institutions of the two sides as an important component.

“Our control agencies are following the political direction and contribute in accordance with the powers available to the development of the whole complex set of inter-state relations, both in bilateral aspect and in the framework of regional cooperation, including the scale of the CIS,” the Russian chairman said.

The two sides discussed further cooperation, including the exchange of practical experience and conducting joint and parallel audits.

The Azerbaijani delegation showed increased interest in the study of the methodological base of the Russian control agency.

"I am confident that the agreement will be the beginning of a new stage of our joint work," said Golikova at the conclusion of the meeting.