State auditors from across Asia gather in capital city

The 42th meeting of the Governing Board of the Asian Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions, or ASOSAI, will take place in Ha Noi from today.

The two-day meeting will see the participation of 11 supreme audit institutions (SAIs) that are members of the ASOSAI governing board, including China, Japan, India and South Korea and two SAIs from Saudi Arabia and Mongolia which are members of ASOSAI’s Audit Committee and a representative from the International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions.

The 42th meeting of ASOSAI Governing Board will review the operation of the governing board and the Secretariat from the last meeting which took place in October 2009, ASOSAI’s 2009 finance report and report on ASOSAI’s training programmes. Today’s meeting will also discuss and work out the development strategy for the organisation in the 2011-15 period.

Tomorrow’s session will hear reports from the Information Technology and environmental auditing special working groups and provide professional recommendations on the relevant issues.

The 42th meeting will also discuss the framework for co-operation between ASOSAI and EUROSAI (the European Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions).

Viet Nam officially became an ASOSAI’s member in January 1997. The State Audit of Viet Nam was elected as a member of ASOSAI’s governing board for the 2009-12 term at the ASOSAI XI congress in Pakistan in 2009. In its 41st meeting in October 2009, ASOSAI governing board decided to accept Viet Nam as the host country for the 2010 meeting.

State General Auditor Vuong Dinh Hue said it was an honour for Viet Nam to act as host for the 42th meeting of ASOSAI governing board.

“We have been doing our best to prepare. We established a group exclusively for organisation tasks headed by a deputy general auditor and we always had periodical reports on the progress of the preparations,” he said.

Viet Nam has benefited a lot from being an ASOSAI member over the past 15 years, especially in auditing fields that are new to Viet Nam such as environmental and operational audits, Hue said.

Hue said that as a member of ASOSAI’s governing board, the Vietnamese audit has paid special attention to developing ASOSAI over the next five years to ensure supreme audit institutions become highly effective and prestigious audit bodies.

This issue has become increasingly important since the recent economic crisis, he said.

He also confirmed that the Vietnamese audit would develop towards not only auditing financial figures but also do performance evaluations, and assess national governance issues such as fiscal and monetary policies.

The Asian Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions, established in 1979, is the Asian body of the International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions. ASOSAI currently consists of 45 members which are supreme audit institutions in the Asia region. Each United Nations member can nominate a single ASOSAI/INTOSAI member.

ASOSAI’s key objectives, as stated in its rules and regulations, include promoting understanding and co-operation among member institutions through exchange of ideas and experiences in the field of public auditing, providing facilities for research, and training and continuing education for government auditors with a view to improving the quality of their performance. — VNS

Vietnamese, Indian auditors join hands

Vietnamese General Auditor Vuong Dinh Hue and Comptroller and Auditor General of India Vinod Rai yesterday signed a co-operation agreement between the two supreme audit institutions. This took place on the sidelines of the 42th annual meeting of the ASOSAI governing board, taking place in Ha Noi today and tomorrow.

The signing confirms the tight and long term co-operation of the two supreme audit institutions in the future in the fields of training, professional standards, practices and processes. The two supreme audit institutions will also exchange high level delegations and research teams.

Yesterday also on the sidelines of the ASOSAI Governing Board 42th meeting, General Auditor Vuong Dinh Hue held separate meetings with the heads of audit delegations from South Korea, Turkey, India, Pakistan and hosted the Japanese audit delegation. — VNS

Tags: Asian Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions, ASOSAI