The 17th Commonwealth Auditors General Conference was held from October 10-13, 1999 in Sun-City, South Africa. Delegates from 42 countries of Commonwealth fraternity met to discuss Auditing in the next century. Apart from 117 delegates there were 11 observers and guests from INTOSAI Secretariat (Austria), International Journal of Government Auditing and various other organizations.
The host Mr. Henri Kluever, Auditor General of South Africa, officially opened the Conference. In his inaugural address he welcomed the delegates, observers and accompanying persons. Mr. Kluever stressed upon the need for effective auditing and accountability in democratic governments. He reiterated the necessity of a strong and transparent system of accountability to get over and counter fraud and corruption.
The other speakers on this occasion were Mr. Jacob Fuma - Deputy President of the Republic of South Africa, Mr. Trevor Manciel - Minister of Finance. Mr. Manciel emphasized the importance of an independent Auditor General for preservation of democracy, accountability and improving public service.
Participants of the 17th Commonwealth Auditors General
Conference held from 10-13th October
1999, in Sun City, South Africa
The theme, "Auditing in the next century", and the related sub-theme for the 17th Commonwealth Auditors General Conference were approved in May 1998. Supreme Audit Institutions who indicated their willingness were selected to prepare core papers on the sub-theme in October 1998.
These were the following three themes of Conference which were further divided into sub-themes:-
| Theme I | Adding value to the Audit Product. The Role and Responsibility of Supreme Audit Institution's |
| Presenters were United Kingdom and Fiji. | |
| Chairpersons -India and Zimbabwe. | |
| Rapporteurs - Australia and Ghana |
Sub-Theme I Forensic Audit
The main purpose of this paper was
Sub-Theme - II Comprehensive Audit
This core paper looked at the problems of Adding Value from general perspectives. This paper was meant to examine some principles generated by various authorities for accountability and strong audit institutions and consider the way in which audit should respond so that the audit product is able to add value.
| Theme II | Environmental Auditing - the future importance and role of Supreme Audit Institution's to encourage this practice. |
| Presenters - Canada and New Zealand | |
| Chairpersons - Namibia and Fiji | |
| Rapporteurs - Zambia and Pakistan |
For this upcoming and essential field of auditing delegates agreed to pay more attention to the issues raised to meet the current and future responsibilities to the public. The important decisions taken were:-
| Theme III | Computer Auditing. |
| Presenters' -India and Zimbabwe. | |
| Chairperson - Canada and New Zealand | |
| Rapporteurs - Antigua & Barbuda and South Africa |
The various benefits in the form of speed, accuracy, easy retrieval of data, simplification of work etc. has resulted in a tremendous increase in the usage of computers while the benefits of computers are well documented and widely known.
The delegates agreed that the rapid changes in the field of information technology have far reaching effects. These changes should be recognized by Supreme Audit Institution's to enable them to:
Mr. Kluever in his closing remarks reiterated that transparency in government represents the backbone of democracies and SAIs play an important role in this process. He appreciated the dedication and hard work of the delegates, which resulted in success of the conference and observed that Sun City declaration will enable SAIs, to face the challenges in the 21st century.
The 6th meeting of INTOSAI group on audit of privatisation took place in Warsaw on October 5-6, 1999. This meeting was mainly to follow up on recommendations made at the last INTOSAI Congress in Montevideo.
The host Mr. Janusz Wojciechowski, President of the Supreme Chamber of Control of Poland welcomed the representatives from 20 SAIs, and also observers from 4 other SAIs. United Kingdom is the Chairman of this group and Sir John Bourn - Comptroller and Auditor General of United Kingdom intimated that 7 more SAIs have joined this group in the last one year since Montevideo Conference in 1998.
Following the 5th meeting of the INTOSAI Working Group on the Audit of Privatisation held in Jerusalem in 1998 before INCOSAI a survey questionnaire was prepared by the group on economic regulation and it's audit and circulated to all SAIs for filling and providing the requisite information. 67 SAIs replied to the questionnaire and have finalized a report on their analysis of the replies to the survey. The group approved the report at the Warsaw meeting in October. The report gave the most comprehensive account so far of the work of SAIs in relation to the operation of a wide range of economic regulatory bodies across the world. It sets out details of how the regulators operate, to whom they are accountable, how they are funded, what they are seeking to achieve, what have been the results for consumers and industries and the role played by SAIs in examining their effectiveness.
The survey has been placed on the Group's website on internet. It is available at http://www.nao.gov.uk/intosai/home.htnn
The group agreed to refine the draft audit guidelines on private, public and concessionary finance for consideration at their next meeting in Buenos Aires in September 2000 following which they would be submitted to the INTOSAI members for comments and a final text submitted to the subsequent Group Meeting Hungary - June 2001 with a view to the guidelines being offered for adoption by XVII INCOSAI.
The Board of Directors of INTOSAI Development Initiative met in Ottawa for their annual meeting on July 28, 1999. The meeting was held under the Chairmanship of Mr. Denis Desautels. Along with other board members the vice-President of the Board Mr. David M. Walker also participated in the meeting. The main agenda item for discussion was transfer of General Secretariat from Canada to Norway, which will be effective from January 1, 2000. The other item of discussion was Long Term Regional Training Plan (LTRTP).
The office of the Auditor General of Norway has sought inputs from member SAIs by circulating a survey questionnaire. The objective of this survey questionnaire is to gather inputs from all INTOSAI members to determine the nature of IDI programmes and activities from 2001-2006 and this will be finally submitted in INCOSAI XVII in 2001.
The 17th INCOSAI is going to be held in Seoul, Korea from October 21-27* in 2001 at the Convention and Exhibition Centre (COEX) located in Seoul. The center will be equipped with state of art convention facilities and will provide a most suitable environment for the INTOSAI Congress & meetings of Standing Committees, Working Groups and Regional Groups. COEX is linked with city air terminal. SAI Korea has designed and selected the logo for the 17th INCOSAI in December 1999.
"Namdaemun' or South Gate is chosen for the logo because of its historic importance as a gateway to it's capital. The main idea of the logo is to welcome each participant from the member SAIs by fully opening the gate of Korea. The logo also includes the denomination of the Congress XVII INCOSAI 2001.
The topics of theme I and theme II are "The Audit of International and Supranational Institutions by SAI" and "The Contribution of SAI to Administrative and Government Reforms".
II A "The Role of SAIs in planning and implementing Administrative and Government Reforms".
II B "The Role of SAIs in Auditing Administrative and Government Reforms".
The Secretariat has constructed a home page for the XVII INCOSAI, which can be found at this address http://www.koreasai.go.kr. This home page is available in all the five INTOSAI official languages.
The 8th Meething of INTOSAI Standing Committee on EDP Audit was held at Harare, Zimbabwe from 7-8th October, 1999. The meeting was presided over by Mr. V.K. Shunglu, Comptroller & Auditor General of India who is Chairman of this committee.
Mr. V.K. Shunglu welcomed the members and thanked Mr. Harid, Auditor General of Zimbabwe for hosting the meeting. He also welcomed five new members whose membership was accepted in this meeting. With joining of Oman, Norway, Poland, Antigua & Barbuda and Slovakia the total membership has gone upto 24.
This meeting was significant as it took several decisions to operationalise the workplan of the committee. It was decided to change over from "Working Group" systems of functioning to Organisation of activities into projects. Each project would be placed under a project coordinator and one or more members of the committees would participate as team members. The meeting also decided to take a thematic approach for the next three issues of IntolT. The 12th issue will accordingly be on "Government on the internet" and 13th on "IT security".
The other important decisions taken were as follows:-
As regards the new research studies planned, the committee appointed project coordinators for each. Accordingly SAI UK will handle the project on "Detection and prevention of IT Related Fraud", SAI-Sweden will coordinate the project on "Computer Related Communications Security" and SAI Norway will take up the project on "Audit of IT Infrastructure Management". Another project on "Intranets for SAIs'" has been taken up with SAI-Oman as project coordinator. Approach papers for the project on "Computer Related Communications Security" and Intranets for SAIs" have already been circulated to a number of SAIs for comments and suggestions.