Electronisation of the Supervision Over Local Government Activity Regarding Financial Matters in Poland and the Constitutional Principle of Legality

The basic aim of this paper is to evaluate the process of electronisation of the supervision implemented by Regional Chambers of Audit (RIO) over the activity of local government in Poland in the scope of financial matters. The Authors conduct this assessment mainly from the perspective of compliance with the principle of legality determined, among others, in Art. 7 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland (the Constitution). Due to the fact that this principle is a general basis for the functioning of public authority bodies, it should also be the basic benchmark (condition) of the broadly understood electronisation of the activity of these bodies, not only in the indicated supervisory scope of RIO. It needs to be noted that the process of electronisation of RIO supervision over local government activity has been gradually implemented since 2016, and, importantly, has not been imposed by the legislator, but happened with the consent of the interested parties. Therefore, the Authors have formulated the key research problem, namely: is the electronisation of RIO supervision over financial matters in compliance with the constitutional principle of legality and, in particular, does it implement all statutory features of this supervision? The analysis allowed to answer positively the above question as well as to indicate other positive (non-legal) effects of electronisation. In this paper, non-reactive research methods, i.e. based on the analysis of the content and available source information, are used in the first place, but it also based on the Authors’ empirical knowledge, because they are members of the Committee of the Regional Chamber of Audit in Bialystok and are engaged in the supervisory process over the local government activity.