Transparency Days 2007
State Audit and Budget Transparency
Belgrade, Serbia, 6 and 7 March 2007

Organised by the Anti-Corruption Council of Serbia, in cooperation with the Swiss Embassy in Serbia and the Basel Institute on Governance

Speaker CVs

Prof Gusztáv Bager

He is a Professor of Economics at the Pázmány Péter Catholic University and the Director General of the Research and Development Institute of the State Audit Office. He was a Director General in the Ministry of Finance responsible for the international financial institutions and, up to 1996, for the European Union and the OECD, too. He represented Hungary as Alternate Governor for the World Bank’s MIGA. He was a representative of the Hungarian Government in the National Committee of the SAPRI Project – Structural Adjustment Participatory Review Initiative which is being conducted jointly with members of NGOs, the World Bank and representatives of governments in ten countries to analyse the economic and social impacts of the Structural Adjustment Loans of the World Bank. In the project Central Europe was represented by Hungary. He has been a National co-ordinator of the European Union’s ACE Programme since 2000.

He was a member of the Ethical Council of the Republic. He is a Founding member of the International Triffin Foundation (an independent organisation of members and institutions of the academic, governmental, banking and business communities all over the world) and since 1996 has been the President of the Robert Triffin-Szirák Foundation in Hungary.

Marcello Faraggi, Journalist

Marcello Faraggi, TV-journalist, producer and director. Member of the former group of journalists that researched on the "Edith Cresson" case, which lead the European Commission under Jacques Santer to resign. He also published the "Eurostat case" about fraud in the statistical office of the EU and produced a documentary on EU-Whistleblowers (Paul van Buitenen, Marta Andreasen, Dorte Schmid-Brown...).

Kurt Grüter, Director, Swiss Federal Audit Office

Kurt Grüter has been Director of the Swiss Federal Audit Office since 1998 and is elected until 2007. Previously, he held various management positions in the Federal Department of Economic Affairs and in the Federal Department of Finance. Mr Grüter has many years experience in policy advice in the areas of economic, finance and taxation policy, as well as in accounting records, controlling and New Public Management. He is a Member of the UN-Panel of External Auditors and of the Board of the Swiss Evaluation Society SEVAL.

Ian Hawkesworth, Administrator, OECD

Ian Hawkesworth, a Danish national, is the Administrator responsible for the budget database. He also conducts country reviews and organises the Eastern Europe Senior Budget Officials Meeting. Ian previously worked as head of section in the Ministry of Finance in Denmark, among other things co-ordinating the implementation of accrual budgeting, government modernisation and budget examination of various ministries. Ian holds an MSc. in comparative politics from the London School of Economics and an MSc. in political science and economics from the University of Copenhagen. He was Associate Professor for a number of years at the latter university.

Prof Dr Yvan Lengwiler

Prof Dr Yvan Lengwiler has been Professor for Economics at the University of Basel since October 2005, following a post as Assistant Professor with tenure track at the University of Basel from 2001 to 2005. Previous to joining the University, he worked as Economic Adviser in the Research Department of the Swiss National Bank (1994-2001), as Lecturer of Economics at the University of Zurich (2000-2002) and the University of St. Gallen (1995). He has also been a visiting lecturer at numerous highly renown universities around the world, including Humboldt-University Berlin, Stanford University, University of Melbourne and International University of Venice. Yvan Lengwiler holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of St. Gallen and has received numerous grants and honors, including a scholarshiop from the Swiss National Science Foundation and the “Paul-Alther-Award” for the best Licenciat thesis of the year in all fields (1988). He has published extensively in the fields of financial markets and monetary policies as well as on corruption and related themes. Yvan Lengwiler is married and has two children.

Alenka Podbevšek

Alenka Podbevšek is a Bachelor of Economics, specialised in auditing, an approved auditor and government auditor, and a court expert in economics. She is a member of the Slovenian Institute of Auditors, the Manager Association and the Association of Supervisory Board Members. Professional experience: Director of Zdravilišče Rogaška, analyst at the State Accountancy Service (SDK), accountant at Kovinsko podjetje Kranj, Head of the Finance & Accounting Service at Golnik Hospital and the University Medical Centre Ljubljana, Director of ZOP Ljubljana, Head of Auditing at SIM Ljubljana, and a Partner Director of Deloitte & Touche Ljubljana. She has conducted many auditing projects in over 200 Slovenian companies and diagnostic examinations, and participated in evaluation and consulting projects, and in a large international project. She regularly gives lectures as a member of the abovementioned associations and as a member of the board of examiners for supervisory board member licences. Through her rich work experience she has been acquainted with financial institutions, production and trade companies as well as national institutions.

Pierre-Christian Soccoja, Executive Secretary, Central Service for Corruption Prevention, France

Mr Pierre-Christian Soccoja is Executive Secretary of the Central Service of Corruption Prevention (SCPC) in France. He is a former student of the Ecole Nationale d’Administration and holds a PhD of Medicine and a diploma of Political Sciences. He started his career as an Adviser for International Affairs at the Ministry of Health and a Senior Adviser for European and International Affairs at the Ministry of Justice, prior to becoming Deputy Head of Mission in Benin.

The SCPC, of which Mr. Soccoja is the Executive Secretary, is an independent authority which reports once a year to the Prime Minister and the Minister of Justice; its head is appointed for 4 years and the advisors represent different institutions that provide funding for them. The SCPC deals with the prevention of corruption and does not have investigative powers. The SCPC gives advice to judicial authorities and public institutions in on corruption related matters, and centralises and analyses data on corruption. The SCPC is not interested in judicial cases but analyses systems of corruption in order to understand how corruption phenomenon evolves in France and in the world. The third area of work of the SCPC is to give recommendations usually through the Annual Report, which addresses selected issues (corruption in sport, conflict of interest). The SCPC cooperates with the law enforcement bodies including the investigative entity named the Central Brigade of Fight against Corruption (GRECO recommendation) and specialised judicial prosecutors. The SCPC also develops joint programmes with public and private companies in order to advise on how to prevent corruption by improving their code of ethics or providing training.

Igor Šoltes, President of the Court of Audit, Slovenia

Igor Soltes has been the President of the Court of Audit of Slovenia since 2004. In this time, he has worked closely with a number of other national courts of audit, including in the United Kingdom and Austria, as well as with the European Court of Auditors and EUROSAI. Mr. Soltes holds a law degree from the University of Ljuibljana in Slovenia, and has obtained a number of professional diplomas, including a Faculty Diploma in “Franchising in EU Competition Law” and the ILO Diploma on “Procurement of services according to EC Directives”. Mr. Soltes has published extensively on the issue of audit, as well as on legal practice and private sector matters, and has lectured in seminars on public procurement and related topics. Prior to joining the Court of Audit in Slovenia, he has been the Commissioner of the Slovene Commission for Access to Public information (from 2003), the Director of the Slovene Public Procurement Office (from 2001), a member of the National Review Commission of Slovenia, in charge of public procurement review procedures, and has worked at the Department of Economic Affairs as the Head of the Administrative Unit. He has also been involved in joint projects with a number of international organisations, such as the SIGMA/OECD Program, OSCE and CARDS, as well as with GtZ from Germany and with governments and public authorities of Sweden, Serbia, the Netherlands and Croatia. In addition to his native language, Mr Soltes is fluent in English, Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian, and in Italian.