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This technical paper has two purposes. It firstly aims to explore Supreme Audit Institutions' information disclosure of Sustainable Development Goals’ related performance auditing practices by focusing on four Balkan countries: Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Slovenia. Secondly, it aims to investigate whether membership in the European Union, in conjunction with the adoption of unified EU legislation and best practices in socio-economic and political spheres, influences the level of disclosure practices in SDGs’ auditing and the national approaches to auditing SDG-related topics.

The study employs a content analysis approach to examine the annual reports of SAIs as government audit bodies in the aforementioned countries. The analysis focuses on the disclosure of SDGs’ information and the level of performance auditing conducted concerning the SDGs. Furthermore, the study utilizes the Spearman rank-order correlation test to explore whether membership in the European Union influences the frequency of SDG-related audits and the amount of information disclosed.

The findings highlight that the Slovenian SAI stands out for its comprehensive information disclosure in annual reports related to SDGs or sustainability reporting. It also demonstrates a high level of performance auditing on SDG topics. Following closely are the Macedonian and Croatian SAIs, which also exhibit noteworthy performance in these areas. In contrast, the Montenegrin SAI displays the lowest level of information disclosure and has conducted fewer performance audits related to SDGs. Furthermore, the study reveals that there is no significant correlation between EU membership and the extent of SDG disclosure in the SAIs' annual reports and the level of performance auditing.

It is important to acknowledge that this study is limited in scope, focusing solely on the annual reports of SAIs in four countries. Additionally, the research does not explore the fundamental factors that contribute to the variations in SDG auditing levels among SAIs.

This paper contributes to the expanding literature on the implementation and monitoring of the SDGs by providing valuable insights into the extent of SDG-related performance auditing conducted by SAIs and the level of information disclosure within their annual reports. The findings have implications for policymakers, auditors, and other stakeholders involved in fostering sustainable development practices and accountability mechanisms.

The state audit is crucial for society in ensuring the transparent and legal spending of public funds. In the Republic of North Macedonia, although state audit-related activities have existed since the state's independence, the State Audit Office started operating as a Supreme Audit Institution in 1999. The purpose of this research was to explore the development of the State Audit Office in the Republic of North Macedonia over the past two decades regarding the organisational aspect and the state audit-related activities.

The research is based on a detailed analysis performed using statistical tests of data collected from the State Audit Office's annual reports on operation and performed audits in the period 2001–2020, concerning the budget, organisational size, audit engagements, audited public revenues and expenditures, audit reports, and given recommendations and their implementation. The survey method was used to determine other factors that could have a correlation with the development of the State Audit Office.

In general, it can be concluded that the State Audit Office has grown in terms of financial resources at its disposal and the organisational size (number of employees). Although there is no correlation between the regularity audit engagements and the audited public revenues and expenditures, there is still a positive correlation between the audited public revenues and expenditures. The implementation of the given recommendations by the auditors is not related to the number of recommendations in the final audit reports. There are several internal, external and international factors that have a positive correlation with the development of the State Audit Office.

The first limitation of this paper pertains to the period of existence of the Supreme Audit Institution in the Republic of North Macedonia not being very long in order to be able to draw more significant conclusions. The second limitation concerns the measurement of the variables from the survey being based only on the perception of the state auditors. Such a measurement method might be considered less accurate in describing the actual situation.

To the best of our knowledge, this paper is the only one that explores the development of the Supreme Audit Institution in the Republic of North Macedonia. Furthermore, it provides a good basis for further detailed research on areas relevant to the issue. We believe that this research will enrich the existing body of literature on state audit by offering a concrete example of the development of a Supreme Audit Institution in a less-researched geographical area.