The 8th ASOSAI Research Project on ‘Environmental Audit Guidelines’ was approved in the 37th Meeting of the Governing Board of ASOSAI held at Shanghai, China on 15th September 2006. The objective of the project was to provide specific guidance to ASOSAI member nations in conducting environment audit, which is an emerging area of audit enquiry. Five member nations opted to be the members of the research project, namely India, China, Malaysia, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. As the regulations governing the environment and audit of the environment were different in different ASOSAI nations, the project members were of the view that a research project on 'Guidance on conducting environment audit' would be a more appropriate topic than 'Environmental Audit Guidelines'. This change was approved in the 38th Meeting of the Governing Board of ASOSAI held in Kuwait in September 2007.

The ‘Guidance on conducting environment audit’ includes themes of environment audit like waste management, air pollution, water pollution and biodiversity. As audit of water management has a very vast coverage, the scope of this guidance has been limited to audit of water pollution issues. Even though references have been made to financial audit in the chapter on audit processes, financial audit of environment issues has been kept out of the scope of this guidance.

The members of the research project recognized the fact that the INTOSAI ‘Working Group on Environmental Auditing’ had already issued many broad guidelines on various environment audit related topics over the last decade. However, this research project aimed at guiding the ASOSAI member nations in initiating and facilitating the conduct of compliance and performance audits of the environment in a more detailed manner, keeping in view the fact that most ASOSAI member nations are at a nascent stage with regard to audit of the environment. This guidance aims to flag very basic issues for audit enquiry that auditors need to examine before drawing their audit conclusions. To achieve this end, the guidance has included detailed checklists of issues to be seen while conducting both performance and compliance audit in the areas of waste management, air pollution, water pollution and biodiversity. The guidance also includes a database consisting of a gist of environment audits already conducted by some ASOSAI members which highlight a host of critical and topical environmental issues being faced specifically in the ASOSAI region.

The team members of the research project consisted of Chen Jixiang from SAI China, Raj G Viswanathan and Nameeta Prasad from SAI India, Oi Chu Kim Ting from SAI Malaysia, Nasira Praveen Khan and Munnaza Aisha (present only in the last meeting in Riyadh) from SAI Pakistan and Salem Ali Al Qhtani from SAI Saudi Arabia. The research group held five meetings over a span of 22 months and the final exposure draft on the ‘Guidance on conducting Environment Audit’ was finalized for circulation amongst all ASOSAI Governing Board members in June 2009.

The final report of the 8th ASOSAI Research Project on "Guidance on conducting Environment Audit" has been approved and adopted in the XI ASOSAI Assembly in Islamabad, Pakistan on 12 October 2009. (To see the Report click here)