Audit Company, no complaints from Bank of Albania

This is the paragraph for March, through which Grant Thorton, the sixth auditing company in the world, has certified the balance of the Bank of Albania for 2013.

The company was contracted by the Bank of Albania for an audit, in order to certify the financial accounts and the balance, including the reserves and the stock, but as we know, recently it was shown that things weren’t like that.

The cash currency of the Bank of Albania treasury is not shown in the balance, because it is secret. But it is controlled through a special procedure. The results are kept in special documents, far from normal financial tables. In the auditing principles, the inspection of the Stock Cash, or the physical inventory, is included in those elements that are considered of high risk and that should be the priorities of the audit.

Top Channel has learned through that the inspection of the Stock Case, where the theft was carried out, has been made twice since 2010. But again, the internal and international audits have not found out about the theft, which, according to the defendant’s confession, it has went on for four consequent years.

Top Channel contacted the Grant Thornton Company. They didn’t accept to answer to questions, but they gave a standard press release. In this declaration, Grant Thornton says that they have been chosen in 2011 through a public tender organized by the Bank of Albania, with the task to make an audit of its finances for three years, and that the Bank of Albania has never had any complaint about its service and results.

“We underline that Grant Thornton has not received any communication from the Supervisory Council of the Bank of Albania for non-professional behavior or carelessness. On the contrary, the annual audit reports sent by Grant Thornton have followed the highest professional standards and the laws in power. These reports were accepted by the Bank without comments as regards the professional quality of the service that has been offered”.

Right after the meeting that was held behind closed doors with the Bank Governor, the Chairman of the Parliamentary Commission of Economy, Erjon Brace, declared that one of the key chain links that failed with this theft is the international audit.

Grant Thornton gives no explanations if the physical inventory was part of their duties, if they have ever made this inspection and why the theft was not found out. But they explain that they have done their job with professionalism and that the Bank has never had any complaint about their reports.

From these reports it is shown that the Bank of Albania Audit has been made every year, but for the situation of the case from where the money were stolen have been confirmed only two audits.

The matter is under investigation, and the Prosecution might also explain the responsibility of the audit. But for many critics, the theft at the Bank of albania is a case similar to the ENRON case, one of the biggest financial scandals.

In that time, the energy company audit, with its headquarters in Houston, USA, was Arthur Andersen, one of the four biggest companies in the world. But after the scandal with ENRON they went to bankruptcy.

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