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INTOSAI News

The 42nd Meeting of the INTOSAI Governing Board was held at Vienna on June 24 and 25, 1996. At this meeting, the following themes were decided for the XVI INGOSAI scheduled to be held at Montevideo, Uruguay from November 7 to 14, 1998 :-

 At this meeting, the Governing Board also approved several important products:-

• a Handbook for INTOSAI Committees and Working Groups, designed to promote consistency on such issues as establishment, membership, language and reporting;
• a Handbook for INTOSAI Governing Board Meetings, providing guidance on the operational aspects of hosting and organising such meetings;
• a Handbook for INTOSAI Congresses, providing detailed information and guidance on planning and hosting the triennial congresses of INTOSAI; and
• the INTOSAI Financial Rules, which present the policies and procedures to be adopted by INTOSAI in implementing the broad financial management policies embodied in the INTOSAI Statutes.

The Governing Board also approved a resolution supporting the transfer of the Secretariat of the INTOSAI Development Initiative (IDI), which is presently with SAI-Canada, to SAI-Norway by 2001 AD. Besides the reports of the Chairmen of the various Standing Committees and Working Groups of INTOSAI, the Board approved the annual report of the International Journal of Government Auditing. Requests for admission of the SAIs of Mongolia and Vietnam to INTOSAI were also approved by the Board, taking the strength of INTOSAI membership to 1 76.

INTOSAl Committees and Working Groups - Work on hand

Much of INTOSAI's technical work is conducted through its Committees and Working Groups, which issue professional standards, guidelines, methodologies, bibliographies and other practical reference material from time to time. For the benefit of our readers, we have summarised the ongoing activities of these committees; for further details, the chairmen of the respective committees may be contacted.

12th UN/INTOSAI Seminar

The 12th UN/INTOSAI Seminar on Government Auditing was held from October 21 to October 25, 1996 at Vienna, Austria. The theme of the Seminar was "The Role of SAIs in Fighting Corruption and Mismanagement". Delegates from nearly 30 SAIs participated in this Seminar, which was also attended by observers from the Netherlands, Switzerland, USA and other international organisations. Discussions at the Seminar were held in three working groups, chaired by representatives from France, India and Mexico. While participants at the Seminar recognised that fighting corruption is primarily the responsibility of the Executive, they agreed that SAIs should conduct risk analysis of transactions audited by them, and identify areas prone to corruption. SAIs should also render appropriate assistance to the concerned authorities in prosecuting the concerned officials or institutions. The participants agreed that regularity, compliance and performance audit were effective tools which could be used by the SAI to uncover cases of fraud, corruption, mismanagement and waste, and also felt that INTOSAI should encourage exchange of experiences of different SAIs in fighting corruption through international and regional seminars.

XVI Conference of Commonwealth Auditors General

The XVI Conference of Commonwealth Auditors General, hosted by SAI-Pakistan, was held at Lahore from November 4 to November 6, 1996. The conference was attended by participants from SAIs of 33 Commonwealth countries, besides observers from a number of other SAIs and international organisations. The theme of the Conference was "Effective Governance and the Role of Supreme Audit Institutions", which was discussed in four sub-themes :-

• Emerging modes of Governance and the SAIs
• Public Interest: Good Governance and the Role of SAIs
• Accountability : Public Representatives, Interest Groups and Media
• Good Governance and Control of Corruption : What can SAIs do ?

Core papers were contributed on these sub-themes by the SAIs of New Zealand, Canada, South Africa and Bangladesh, with discussion papers on these core papers presented by the SAIs of Singapore, Australia, Tanzania and the United Kingdom. The country papers contributed by a large number of Commonwealth SAIs on these sub-themes were summarised and presented by the SAIs of Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, Pakistan and Guinea. Participants at the Conference deliberated at length on the various issues concerning good governance, and the role that SAIs could play in fostering better governance. The discussions culminated in the Lahore Declaration, which recognised that SAIs should be responsive to changes in governance processes and should bear in mind that their ultimate stakeholders are the Parliament and the general public, and that the promotion of good governance is an important aspect of their work in the public interest. On the issue of fraud and corruption, the Conference recognised that the SAIs are one of the main legislative instruments to enhance accountability and transparency and, together with other anti-corruption agencies, are powerful deterrents to corruption, but noted that the specific role to be played by an SAI in fighting corruption would depend on domestic factors. The Conference also recommended that suitable arrangements should be made in the Commonwealth Secretariat to have access to deliberations of the triennial Commonwealth Auditors General. The venue for the next Conference of Commonwealth Auditors General scheduled for 1999 was decided as South Africa.

Participants at the XVI Conference of Commonwealth Auditors General