PUBLIC AUDIT AS A FACTOR OF THE RESILIENCE OF THE SOCIAL STATE

Анотація

The article examines state social security under crisis conditions as a multi-level state of protection of the vital interests of the individual, society, and the state, shaped and transformed under the influence of military, economic, and social challenges. The focus is placed on the role of public audit as a key instrument of democratic governance capable of ensuring the effectiveness of social policy through enhanced transparency, accountability, and the rational use of public resources. It is substantiated that in times of crisis public audit performs not only a control function but also a strategic one, contributing to the optimization of social programmes, improving their targeting accuracy, and minimizing resource losses. Based on an analysis of Ukrainian and international scholarly approaches, the study clarifies the content of the categories “social security” and “public audit” and identifies the core functions of audit — evaluative, preventive, corrective, legitimizing, and educational — in the context of ensuring social policy effectiveness. The article outlines the interconnection between public audit and other instruments for strengthening state social security in crisis conditions, including social protection and insurance systems, labour market regulation mechanisms, anti-poverty programmes, anti-corruption measures, and socio-economic risk monitoring systems. It is emphasized that the integration of audit recommendations into the decision-making process ensures measurable social outcomes and enhances the resilience of state social policy. The research methodology is based on a structured literature review and problem-oriented synthesis, supported by practice-based illustrations from audits in the fields of social assistance, healthcare procurement, and pension administration. The findings demonstrate that the implementation of audit recommendations increases the targeting accuracy of social programmes, expands coverage of vulnerable groups, reduces resource leakages, and strengthens fiscal sustainability, provided that information systems are properly integrated and effective follow-up mechanisms are institutionalized. In the context of war, post-war recovery, and EU integration reforms, performance auditing, integration of state registries, development of IT audit capacity, and public oversight of recommendation implementation are of particular importance for Ukraine. The article substantiates the need to implement a comprehensive set of measures, including reorienting audit toward performance and impact assessment, building a unified data ecosystem, enhancing professional standards and auditors’ competencies, introducing mandatory parliamentary oversight of follow-up, and aligning audit procedures with public expenditure reviews and anti-corruption policy.

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