Local governments oppose new control mechanism

Local governments are protesting against a bill which would allow the country’s Supreme Audit Office to look into their financing. The bill, which Parliament recently approved in its first reading, was drafted by the two strongest political parties as a key tool in combating widespread corruption. Local governments have attacked the proposed change on the argument that a lower-level control mechanism is already in place and that giving the same powers to the Supreme Audit Office would only double the amount of bureaucracy for local administrations. For the present time the work of the Supreme Audit Office is largely restricted to auditing state financing.