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Lessons from the ASOSAI convention on Performance Auditing that took place at the Philippines at May 1998

SAI- Philippines

The development of technology and the increase in the standard of living in the last century has been teaching us how great is the potential that is latent in the cooperation between people, and in the realisation of their relative advantages. The people's consciousness to that potential, arouses their expectation to have an higher standard of living. That brings the people to choose democracy and to elect a democratic government that is accountable to promote their welfare.

The accountable governments initiate plans and projects and allocate resources to solve social and economic problems and to raise the standard of living. Because of the basic shortage in resources it is crucial to evaluate and to learn, whether the plan and its implementation have been efficient, successful and contributed

The conference on performance auditing has been contributing to clarify that issue and also gave the participant important and useful methods and tools to audit the performance of projects and plans in their own countries. More important, the conference has also demonstrated how we can contribute to one another. The lately stormy and turmoil economic period is another proof that we all live in one boat. We must recognize our mutual accountability to contribute to the good of mankind. That accountability will Lead us to adopt a more comprehensive and efficient plan and the necessary projects to ensure on one hand a minimal standard of living and on the other hand to develop the human capability in the developing as in the developed countries for a better, peaceful and just world.

I would also like to thank the members from the Philippines for the generous and warm hospitality.

Long Term Regional Training Programme

The Long Term Regional Training Programme for ASOSAI which was funded by the Asian Development Bank, and with technical inputs and faculty from the IDI, was perhaps the most outstanding regional activity during 1998.

A core group of instructors were selected from 15 SAIs and participated as trainees in the Course Design and Development Workshop at Bangkok from 19.1.1998 to 13.3.1998. This was a great success, both in terms of organisation and hospitality as well as the excellent technical inputs.

The next activity was a 4 weeks Instructor Training Workshop from 8.6.1998 to 3.7.1998 at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This too was an outstanding success, arising out of excellent administration, warm hospitality and outstanding technical inputs.

As a result of these 2 workshops, the region now has 27 trained and certified instructors capable of designing, developing and delivering courses in conformity with the highest international standards.

This was amply demonstrated when 6 of the above instructors served as the faculty for the Regional Workshop on "Certification of Financial Statements" conducted at New Delhi from 30.11.1998 to 11.12.1998, under the watchful eyes of IDI Instructors and an evaluation expert from the ADB.

It is heartening to learn that the ADB has decided to provide funding for Phase II of the Programme.

Governing Board Meeting - Beijing

ASOSAI Governing Board meeting was held at Beijing on 8th and 9th September, 1998. An important decision taken in this meet was that in future Assemblies of ASOSAI, there would be a one day Symposium instead of the international seminars that were held in past Assemblies.

It is expected that this would result in more efficient and effective Assembly preparations. The Board also approved 2 ASOSAI sponsored training courses during 1999. These will be on Environmental Auditing from 13.4.1999 to 21.4.1999 at Seoul, and the other at Kuwait on "Audit of Internal Control" sometime in November 1999. These would be in addition to the ADB funded training programmes and courses hosted by individual SAIs.

The head of SAI, Korea briefed his colleagues about the preparations being made for XVII INCOSAI in Seoul in the year 2001.