CoHE and Turkish Court of Accounts Sign Protocol for Cooperation in
Education
April 1, 2021 / Ankara
The Council of Higher Education and the Turkish Court of Accounts (TCA)
signed a cooperation protocol to regulate the scope and conditions of the
training courses planned for university personnel.
The signing ceremony was held at CoHE. Prof. M. A. Yekta Saraç, President
of the Council of Higher Education, Seyit Ahmet Baş, President of the
Turkish Court of Accounts, CoHE Executive Board Members and officials from
the Turkish Court of Accounts attended the ceremony.
In his speech, CoHE President Saraç said that the protocol aims to overcome
the financial problems of universities, such as revolving funds, with the
training courses to be offered to the academic and administrative staff at
universities.
He noted that they, as CoHE, had compiled the issues of universities
encountered during the audits carried out by the Turkish Court of Accounts
and said, “The Turkish Court of Accounts is familiar with the deficiencies
of universities as a result of their audits. In this scope, a pool of
training topics will be created and expert auditors from TCA will provide
training in these topics. The compilation of the educational demands of
Turkish higher education institutions and their participation in the
training activities will be carried out under the coordination of the
Council of Higher Education. The training courses to be given to the
academic and administrative staff of the higher education institutions will
be carried out in the fields to be determined by the Turkish Court of
Accounts. The scope and schedule of the training courses will be determined
by agreement between the two institutions. We aim to realize an education
planning for higher education institutions and to provide these trainings
in the requested fields."
- "We will coordinate the participation of Turkish higher education
institutions in educational activities"
Saraç emphasized that the process would be carried out in the following
order: The Council will exchange correspondence with universities, the
universities that want to receive training will be determined, they will
apply to CoHE, and the personnel to receive training will be determined.
"We will evaluate the training requests of our universities about the
topics conveyed to us and the issue areas that the auditors of TCA
encounter during the audits. We will ensure the coordination of the
participation of the higher education institutions in educational
activities, which are making educational plans under the main topics. It
was also agreed on with this protocol to subject the trainees to test after
the completion of the training courses in higher education institutions.
The audits made possible with this cooperation protocol will become more
efficient in terms of reducing the workload of both Turkish higher
education institutions and TCA."
Click here to read the full transcript of the speech made by CoHE President
Prof. M. A. Yekta Saraç. (In Turkish)
- "We especially wanted it to be done systematically and in
coordination with CoHE"
Seyit Ahmet Baş, President of the Turkish Court of Accounts, said that they
were trying to bring the guidance function set out in the new Court of
Accounts Law to the fore. He said that they signed a similar protocol with
the Union of Municipalities of Turkey. “We have carried out these training
courses with many participants from large and small municipalities online
because of the pandemic. We also met the demands of some universities last
year. We requested from the Council of Higher Education to make it
systematically. We especially wanted it to be done systematically and in
coordination with CoHE. We believe that this protocol will be beneficial in
increasing the capacities of the spending units of universities."
Following the speeches, CoHE President Saraç and TCA President Baş signed
the cooperation protocol.
- The training courses will be carried out under the coordination of
CoHE
Within the scope of the protocol, the officials from the Turkish Court of
Accounts will give training courses to the related personnel at
universities in topics that fall under the field TCA is responsible for
audit.
The fields and dates for the courses that are planned to be offered online
during the pandemic will be determined as a result of the talks between the
officials of both institutions and will be shared with the relevant higher
education institutions.
All activities such as the realization of training activities to be carried
out and the participation of the relevant personnel will be carried out
under the coordination of CoHE.