India
The XXIII Accountants General conference was held from 20-22 September, 2005 at New Delhi. The conference was inaugurated by H.E. Mr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, the President of India. The four main themes and sub-themes of the Conference were:
Theme 1: Enhancing Effectiveness of Audit
Sub-theme: (i) Strengthening audit of compliance to rules and regulations (ii) Implementing performance audit guidelines (iii) Taking up comprehensive appraisals of government departments including department based audit planning
Theme 2: Adopting Best Practices from the ASOSAI Guidance on Audit Quality Management System
Sub-theme: (i) Human Resources Development; including recruitment, training and performance appraisal (ii) Audit Performance; including audit planning, IT tools and consultation and advice (iii) Continuous Improvement; inspection and peer review, international quality assurance
Theme 3: Audit Challenges & Prospects
Sub-theme: (i) Gearing up for adoption of accrual accounting (ii) Audit of NGOs receiving Government grants (iii) Responding to changes in Legislation regarding audit of PSEs
Theme 4: Mid Term review of Perspective Plan 2003-2008
A thirteen member delegation from the Government of Indonesia visited the office of the Comptroller & Auditor General of India under the ongoing ADB project on ‘Support to State Audit Reform” from August 1-5, 2005. Presentations by officers of Comptroller & Auditor General of India were made on functioning of CAG of India, Parliamentary oversight through parliamentary committees, Audit of Funds of Government and Provinces, Capacity Building & Training. The delegation also made a field visit to a provincial audit office.
A ten member delegation from SAI-Iraq visited India from October 25 to November 9, 2005 for training of their officers in the area of comprehensive audit. The training was divided into theoretical training and attachment with field offices. The theoretical component of the training was imparted at iCISA and the attachments were with the different field offices of the Comptroller & Auditor general of India in New Delhi
Memorandum of Understanding of cooperation signed between the SAIs of Islamic Republic of Iran and Russian Federation
On the 4th of July 2005, a Memorandum of Understanding of cooperation was signed between Dr. Mohammad Reza Rahimi, President of the Supreme Audit Court of Islamic Republic of Iran and Dr. Sergey Vadimovich Stepashin Chairman of the Chamber of Accounts of the Russian Federation in Tehran. This MoU was signed in order to promote further and closer cooperation between the two neighboring SAls and to provide the general frame work of interaction in the exchange of Audit, information and experience, training and conducting joint audits. The two SAls, realized the importance of this cooperation and professed their intention to carry out audits and environmental audits on the Caspian Sea.
Dr. Stepashin and Dr. Rahimi believed that by conducting bilateral interactions, the SAls will help enhance the Audit activities in the region and thereby comply with the INTOSAI and ASOSAI objectives.
Jordan
On July 18, 2005 Audit Bureau of Jordan signed the acceptance proposal for twining project submitted by National Audit office, UK “NAO” with Germany as Junior Partner.
The overall objective and project purpose is to assist the Audit Bureau to operate efficiently and effectively in the public audit environment and sustain new challenges and tasks. The specific objectives of the project are as follows:
To convert the Audit Bureau into the Supreme Audit Institution in line with the international standards and best practices;
To assist in designing the restructuring and redeployment plans of the Audit Bureau aligning it with the public sector Reform Strategy for Jordan;
To help positioning the Audit Bureau as the fully-fledged independent Supreme Audit Institution of Jordan, through upgrading of its legal framework;
To enhance public auditing in Jordan, strengthening the skills and efficiency of the Audit Bureau’s auditors.
State Audit Bureau (SAB) participated in the 14th Meeting of INTOSAI Standing Committee for Information Technology Audit that was held in Bhutan during the period from 29-27 April 2005.
In the field of exchanging visits and get acquaintance with other SAls works and duties, in May 2005 SAB President, Mr. Barrak Khaled Al-Marzouq, officially visited the Auditor General Office in Norway and the IDI.
In April 2005 SAB participated in the first meeting of working group on Information Technology formed by ARABOSAI. The next meeting for the working group will be held during September 2005 at the headquarters of General Secretariat in Tunisia.
In July 2005 SAB participated in the meeting of ARABOSAI team to prepare a comprehensive strategic plan based on the objectives approved by INTOSAI.
Official delegations from SAB visited SAls of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Bahrain Kingdom and Qatar, to exchange experiences and knowledge and get acquaintance with SAIs duties, missions and the methods they are following to perform these duties.
In April 2005, the State Audit Bureau of Kuwait, as a representative of ARABOSAI, participated in the International Symposium on SAls role in E- Government Audit held by INTOSAI in cooperation with UN in Vienna, Austria.
Conducting the 6th Research Competition for the year 2005 in the State Audit Bureau of Kuwait at all the sectors level. The competition included the following four subjects:
The internal audit role in application of governmentization principles.
Cash flows effective administration in the view of the increasing committee demands.
Achieving efficiency in the government sector through expenditure and stock audit.
The subject of the team research: the impact of the team work on the quality of the State Audit Bureau external and internal reports.
* 53 employees participated in writing 33 researches. Researches shall be submitted by October 2005. These researches will be assessed to declare the winners.
The National Audit Department of Malaysia (NAD) received visit by 5 Members of Parliament from the Bangladesh Public Accounts Committee on 28 April 2005. The visit was headed by Advocate Harun AI-Rashid the Chairman of the Bangladesh Public Accounts Committee. The objective of the visit was to get some first hand information on the relationship between the NAD and the Parliament in Malaysia, particularly with PAC. During the visit, the Deputy Auditor-General of Malaysia, Dato' Azizah bt. Hj. Arshad briefed the delegates on the roles and responsibilities of the NAD. This was followed by an open discussion between the NAD officials and the delegates. Among the issues raised were:
role of the Auditor-General in the PAC meeting;
reporting style to the Parliament; and
role of Auditor-General in curbing corruption.
The National Audit Department of Malaysia (NAD) received a visit by 3 delegates from the Board of Audit and Inspection of Korea (BAI) on 24 May 2005. The visit was headed by the Commissioner of BAI, Mr. Kim Kyung-Sup and was accompanied by 2 representatives from the Korean Embassy in Malaysia. The Auditor-General of Malaysia, Tan Sri Dr. Hadenan b. A. Jalil briefed the delegates on the NAD roles and responsibilities. This was followed by an open discussion between the NAD officials and the delegates. Among the issues raised were:
types of audit being conducted by NAD;
rules and regulations in hiring Private Audit Firms and other professionals;
approach to performance audit;
NAD reforms programmes on 'user friendly' approach to auditing, balanced reporting, adopted agencies program and management audit; and
NAD participation in international activities organised by ASOSAI and INTOSAI; and
issues on NAD/auditees relationship.
H.E. Mr. Osama Jafar Faquih headed GAB’s delegation to the Extraordinary Meeting (53) of the INTOSAI Governing Board held in Budapest during the period 17-18 March 2005. The Meeting was particularly dedicated to follow-up the progress made to implement the INTOSAI Strategic Plan and review the recommendations of the INTOSAI Finance and Administration Committee in this regard.
The GAB of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia organized the third phase of the “Training the Trainers” Program to contain: ‘The design, Preparation of training Materials and training techniques’, for a number of trainers from the GCC SAIs. This activity was implemented in collaboration with the IDI from 2 to 13 April 2005. The aim of the activity was to improve the trainers’ skills by way of preparing a qualified cadre of trainers from within these SAIs. In the end of course participants were awarded the IDI Diploma. The course was delivered on three phases of (7) weeks.
The GAB monitored its Annual Symposium for the year 1426H on 14.3.1426H under the heading ‘ways and means to Promote Cooperation with its Auditees’. The audience included several of their Excellencies the Ministers, the Director General of the Institute of Public Administration and Public corporations subject Auditees. Some other agencies were there as well namely the Ministries of Finance, Communications and Information Technology, King Saud University, the Saudi Public Accountants Society and some professionals and Academicians who presented work Papers in addition to GAB’s wonk Papers.
The Symposium discussed the following topics:
The First Topic: Motives to shift from the traditional methods in Book-Keeping of Accounts and preparation of Financial Statements to modern electronic methods (The organizational and practical aspects / requirements for the adoption of this method).
The second Topic: Motives to shift from the traditional methods in Book-keeping of Accounts and Preparation of Financial Statements to modern electronic methods (The technical requirements and the objective aspects for the adoption of this method).
The Third Topic: The Internal Control and its effect on the protective impact on public Moneys (The Scientific and Intellectual aspects).
The Fourth Topic: The Internal Control and its effect on the Protective impact on Public Moneys (The professional, aspects the rules and standards).
The Fifth Topic: The Internal Control and its effect on the Protective impact on Public Moneys (Requirements for applying this training method and qualifying human resource cadres).
The Sixth Topic: The Internal Control and its effect on the Protective impact on Public Moneys (Its correlation with the External Auditor role).
The GAB participated in the International Conference organized by SAI, Indonesia to review the efficiency and effectiveness of the auditing control methods on the donation funds and aids offered by some donor countries and International Development organizations to help out Citizens affected by the earth quake and Sea tide (Tsunami) Natural disasters which hit parts of Indonesia and some East Asia countries. (The Conference was held from 25 to 27 April 2005 in the city of Jakarta). The GAB was represented by H.E. Mr. Abdulrahman Bin Mohmmed Al-Aqeel the Assistant Vice-President for Performance Audit.
By way of reinforcing cooperation with the educational agencies, the GAB hosted a visiting delegation from AL-Qassim University-College of Management, Economics, Accountancy department on 12.5.2005. The visit was intended to provide the Accountancy students and some of the teaching staff with an idea of GAB’s operations and systems. The visitors were adequately informed with the systems, the organization Pattern, the available work opportunities offered by GAB for gradates in Accountancy and the International organizations in which GAB enjoys membership.
On the approval of H. E the President of GAB a number of staff participated in several training courses at local and external Institutions, on the following topics:
Accountancy, Audit, Zakat, Income Tax and Commercial Regulations held by the Saudi Public Accountants Society.
English Language-held by the Banking Institute.
Audit of Environment using the computer facility-delivered by SAI, India International Training center. Audit of International organizations And Audit of Outstanding Moneys delivered by the SAI, India International Center.
The International Program on Performance Audit-imparted by the Training Institute of Accountancy and Audit-Pakistan.
The GAB’s Phase (1) of its Internal Training Program was completed – It included five basic training courses in the fields of Audit and four training Courses in the Computer technology and four courses in the field of EDP.
Within the program of technical cooperation between GAB and SAI India, Some experts are visiting GAB to hold consultative Meetings to discuss the following topics:
The updating and developing of the training programs delivered by GAB.
Discussion on the preparation of Information Technology Manual Using the COBIT System.
Discussion on the preparation of Quality Management System Manual.
The cooperation includes as well, the delivery of five training programs by SAI, India namely:
Comprehensive training on Performance Audit for GAB’s staff.
Comprehensive training on the Information Technology Audit.
Training of the supervisory level staff to introduce the current international standards and best Practices in the field of Performance Audit.
Training on Quality Management Systems.
H.E. Mr. Osama Jafar Faquih headed the Kingdom’s delegation to the 6th Global Forum on the Reinvention of Government held in the capital city of Seoul of South Korea on 24 to 26 of May 2005, under the patronage of United the Nations. The delegation included representatives from the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Higher Education, the General Auditing Bureau and the council of chambers of Commerce and Industry of Saudi Arabia.
Within the framework of strengthening bilateral cooperation with SAIs, GAB hosted a visiting delegation from SAI, China headed by the Deputy Auditor General to enhance cooperation in the fields of Financial Audit and EDP Audit during the period from 19 to 23 June 2005.
A delegation from SAI, Kuwait headed by the Assistant Deputy for Auditees resembling companies and affiliated departments, visited GAB from 10 to 12 June 2005 by way of enhancing cooperation in the field of financial Auditing and review of the operational procedures in use at GAB.