Following the development of audit reports templates for the election campaign financial reports, financial expert monitoring reports and political party annual reports in early 2018, the "Action against Economic Crime in Albania" organised a training for the staff of the Central Election Commission, financial experts and auditors, and representatives of the Institute of Authorised Chartered Experts, which took place on 23 February in Tirana. The Action is co-funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe within the “Horizontal Facility for Western Balkans and Turkey” and implemented by the Council of Europe.

The participants had an opportunity to learn about the application of these templates for auditing election campaign finance reports, financial expert monitoring reports and political party annual reports.

In addition, the Council of Europe experts provided guidelines and tools for auditing the different types of reports and discussed with the participants several case studies which were tailor-made for this exercise.

Auditors outlined the difficulties encountered during the preparation of the audit reports financial experts discussed with Council of Europe experts the monitoring checklist.

The three templates provided will help the auditors and financial experts to carry out their tasks in a consistent, comprehensive and systematic manner.

The reporting templates will also assist political parties and candidates to comply with the requirements according to the legislation in force by reporting accurately their financial transactions to the Central Election Commission.

In his opening remarks the Chair of the Central Election Commission acknowledged that the presentation of standardised audit template and the exchange of ideas and best practices on financial oversight will increase the knowledge on the legal requirements and produce effective enforcement, leading to an increased transparency on political party finance.