Estonia's 2018 financial statements accurate, says audit office
The Estonian state's financial statements for 2018 are in their essentials accurate, giving a true and fair view of the financial position, performance and cash flow, according to the National Audit Office (Riigikontroll).
The state's economic transactions for 2018 were in line with all legal requirements, including the State Budget Act 2018 and its amending instruments, the office says.
This makes the state revenue of €9.95 billion, expenditure just under that at €9.8 billion, investments of €465.5 million and financing transactions at €49.0 million, reliable figures, the office continued in a press release.
The audit office notes that the excess of €318.6 million in expenditure and investments over revenues does not constitute any kind of government surplus, which would be calculated in a different way.
State assets at year end 2018 came to €16.1 billion, an increase year-on-year of €668.7 million, the audit office said. The bulk of the state's assets are fixed assets such as forestry, roads, real estate and plant.
State liabilities also increased by €860.6 million y-o-y to year end 2018, to €8.8 billion, the office said. The bulk of this (€5.57 billion) is made up of long-term liabilities.
The state loan payables have risen by €175.6 million, to €3.1 billion, over the same timescale.
The state's pension payables amount to around €2.6 billion, the office said.
The National Audit Office has also made recommendations regarding combatting corruption, as a result of the report.
The full text of the audit report on the accuracy of the 2018 Financial Statements and Regularity of Transactions of the state is here.
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Audit report details
The State Budget Act required the National Audit Office to audit the correctness of the Financial Statements of the State and the regularity of its transactions. The financial statements of all state accounting entities, public undertakings, foundations established by the state and profit-making state agencies are consolidated in the Financial Statements of the State. In order to give an opinion of the correctness of the Financial Statements of the State and the regularity of transactions, the National Audit Office checked the compliance of the economic transactions concluded in state agencies in 2018 with the State Budget Act and the correctness of their recognition in accounting. The National Audit Office audited whether the Financial Statements of the State give correct information about the financial status and economic performance of the state in the year ended and whether state agencies have complied with the State Budget Act when concluding economic transactions.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte
