The Asian Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (ASOSAI) organized the second batch of the ASOSAI Seminar on Challenges of New Audit Frontiers on the theme “How to Develop and Manage Human Resources to deal with Emerging Audit Issues” on November 19 to 29, 2007. The seminar was sponsored by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and was held at the Institute for International Cooperation (IFIC) in Tokyo, Japan. A total of 14 officers, representing 12 SAIs, attended the seminar.

The SAI representatives presented their country papers dealing on the theme highlighting the SAI’s audit system; the policies, procedures and practices peculiar to its own human resource management system; and the emerging audit issues vis-à-vis how the SAI manages these issues.

As a result of the country paper presentations, the participants identified the emerging audit issues common to each of the SAIs. Working in groups, they discussed extensively on the various strategies and approaches to cope with the demands posed by these significant audit issues on the SAI’s human resources development. These group outputs were presented and reviewed in plenary.

A visit to Kyoto and Nara was organized to learn about Japan’s culture and religion. The visit to the Audit Office of Nara Prefecture was very informative as its officers briefed the ASOSAI-JICA participants of the Prefecture’s internal audit operations and activities. These visits, including the training management, were organized efficiently.

The participants also paid a courtesy call on the President of the Board of Audit of Japan. In that occasion, President Muneharu Otsuka briefed the participants of the Board’s expanded functions and the resulting demands on Board’s discharge of its mandate. He stressed that the new mandate signifies the trust and confidence of the Diet on the Board’s capability and integrity as an independent external audit institution.

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