The State Audit Office of Hungary (SAO) has completed the audits of nearly 200 sports organisations in the last two years. During the audits, the SAO assessed the use of public funds and assets allocated free of charge for specific purposes, and the financial management of the sports associations and federations concerned. The reason for the audits was that the sports clubs and federations may receive budgetary support for their operation and professional activities or for spectator team sports, which is of increased public interest.
The audits revealed weaknesses in the set-up of the organisational framework, the regulatory framework, the use and accounting of grants and the management of assets in a number of organisations.
With the self-test recently published by SAO, it intends to support that the operation of sports clubs and federations subject to the Sports Act, which define the organisation of sports activities and the creation of conditions for sports activities as their core activity is in accordance with the legal requirements. By completing the self-test, the managers of sports organisations can gain an insight into the organisation’s compliance with the law in the areas of operation and financial management.
The SAO compiled the questions in such a way that the organisation can check the practice applied – e.g. the content of an internal regulation – and also obtain guidance for the development of good practices. Once completed, the self-test automatically summarises the results and highlights areas for improvement, clarification or modification.
Completion of the self-test is anonymous, the system does not collect or store data, and the SAO aims to facilitate lawful operations.
The SAO encourages the managers and staff of sports organisations to use the self-test, thus contributing to the regular operation and financial management of the organisations.
The self-test can be downloaded from here (in Hungarian).