The second meeting of the Finance and Administration committee was held in Washington, DC on July 25, 2005.The committee discussed the following points:
INTOSAI financial report: The committee believed that the efforts to collect past due amounts from the members have been successful and decided to determine effective date of sanctions at a future meeting
INTOSAI interaction with donor organizations: The committee will querry INTOSAI’s central bodies (Secretariat, Journal, IDI, Committees, Working Groups and Task Forces) to identify current or planned interaction with donors.
Applications for position of INTOSAI Director of strategic planning: The committee recommended three candidates for interview to the Governing Board.
Associate membership: The US, GAO will draft an initial list of international accountability organisations, including international public accounting firms in private sector, who are potentially eligible for associate membership in INTOSAI and will circulate it to the committee and Governing Board of INTOSAI for review.
INTOSAI collaboration tool: The committee received a comprehensive proposal from SAI-India for the development of an Internet based collaboration tool consistent with the Goal 3 (knowledge sharing) in the strategic plan. The tool is a work a bench for facilitating better and quicker communication in the INTOSAI and its working groups and committees:
Sale of INTOSAI publications. The committee expressed interest in partial recovery of costs by sale of its publications and allow IDI to expand its training programmes and to broaden the financial base of INTOSAI.
Budget allocations: The committee decided that the savings gained by the reduction of INTOSAI’s annual allocation to the journal should be re-allocated to capacity building and knowledge sharing activities.
Global communication policy: SAI-India presented a draft INTOSAI Global Communication Policy. The Committee felt the need for more time to reflect on the proposal and to provide an opportunity for the Director of Strategic Planning to consider the proposal.
The next meeting of the Finance and Administrative Committee would be held in Saudi Arabia in early 2006.
The 12th meeting of the Working Group was held in Brasilia, Brazil between September 13-14, 2005. Brazilian Court of Audit hosted the events at Minister Pereira Lira Auditorium. The programme included presentation on experiences in the audit of privatisation, economic regulation and public/private partnerships, with particular reference to the themes of Government handling of failed privatisation and new role of the SAIs in both regulation oversight and public/ private partnerships.
The meeting of the INTOSAI Standing Committee on IT Audit (ISCITA) was held in Paro, Bhutan from April 27-29, 2005. The meeting was presided over be Mr. Vijayendra N. Kaul, Comptroller and Auditor General of India and Chairman of ISCITA. Forty-six delegates from 22 Supreme Audit Institutions attended the meeting. Two delegates from INTOSAI Development Initiative (IDI) attended the meeting as observers. The committee discussed various issues such as “intoIT” journal, web site of the committee, measures taken to counter fraud in IT Environment, cross organizational country systems, INTOSAI IT Audit Courseware, Advance Training modules and CAAT’s for non Financial Auditing.
SAI-Norway presented the summary of the Task Force report on the Audit of e-Government project. SAI-Canada gave a presentation on project lifecycle issues and risk factors relevant to e-Government audit and a summary of the draft report on the UN-INTOSAI seminar on audit of e-government. SAI-Netherlands presented their repot on EUROSAI IT Working Group’s first work period.
The 15th meeting of the ISCITA will be held in Brazil from May 17-19, 2006.
The Steering Committee of the Professional Standards Committee held its first meeting on 7-8 September, 2005 in Oslo. The Steering Committee agreed on a draft terms of reference for the PSC. The Steering Committee also agreed on four main areas of focus until the INCOSAI in 2007.
Common framework for INTOSAI Professional Standards
Communication and implementation plan including a survey on the present status of the INTOSAI Professional Standards and guidelines
Accountability and transparency principles
New Performance Audit Sub-committee
The next meeting of the Steering Committee will be held in Washington on 4-5 May, 2006.
A meeting of the INTOSAI Public Debt Committee was held in Sofia, Bulgaria between 2-3 June, 2005. Mr. Arturo Gonzalez de Aragon, Superior Auditor of Mexico and Chairman of the Public Debt Committee presented a report on the activities of the Committee. Preparation of following papers / documents was also agreed to:
Public Debt regulations questionnaire outcomes
Reference Terms and the instruments to be used for the study of public debt regulations by country and its political system
Contingent public debt questionnaire document
Best practices for contingent public debt management and its auditing
General policies and best practices on public debt and its management
The theme of the XIX INCOSAI will be Public Debt
Sub-Theme:
Public Debt Management
Accountability and Auditing of Public Debt
The next meeting of the Committee will be held in June, 2006 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.