The National Audit Office of Bahrain (NAO) participated in the 15th Assembly of the Asian Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions (ASOSAI) and the 8th ASOSAI Symposium which was held virtually on Tuesday and Wednesday and hosted by the State Audit Office of Thailand.
The ASOSAI assembly was attended by Dr. Isa Alnoaimi, Assistant Auditor General Administrative Audit, Mr. Mahmood Hashim, Director Administrative Audit, Mr. Fahad Jassim, Director Information Systems and Mr. Yusuf Almahmood, International Cooperation Superintendent.
At the assembly, new Members to ASOSAI’s Governing Board and its Audit Committee were elected for the period of 2021 to 2024. ASOSAI’s chairmanship moved from the SAI of Vietnam to the SAI of Thailand and the SAI of India was selected to host the next Assembly which will take place in 2024.
The assembly approved the ASOSAI financial statements and their external audit result for 2018-2021, the budget for 2022-2024 and the next ASOSAI Strategic plan for 2022-2027.
The attendees adopted the Bangkok Declaration which focused on promoting good governance, encouraging the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), increasing the use of advanced technologies for public sector auditing and promoting cooperative audit on disaster management and pandemic preparedness.
Participants from the NAO were briefed on international audit activities and the importance of exchanging knowledge and strengthening cooperation to provide audit services that add value and to enhance NAO’s institutional capacity.
The two-day event discussed the importance of conducting audits according to best practice and standards as adopted by the International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI) and investing in developing planning methods for audits.
Furthermore, participants reflected on increasing the implementation of audit tasks that add value and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of audit institutions, expanding IT audit and forensic audit and providing suitable training programs to support this.
43 ASOSAI member Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) attended the assembly as well as representatives from the INTOSAI General Secretariat.
The assembly approved the establishment of the ASOSAI working group on SDGs and the ASOSAI working group on Crisis Management Audit.
Participants of the assembly were briefed on several reports which included reports on activities carried out by the secretariat since the previous assembly, the implementation of the current strategic plan, ASOSAI capacity development activities, the results of the Hanoi Declaration which focused on sustainable development, and the ASOSAI Journal Award.
In addition, the assembly provided a brief on the report of the working group on Environmental Audit, the report on ASOSAI’s grant to member SAIs affected by Covid 19.
The ASOSAI symposium, which was held on the second day, included group discussions on promoting good governance, encouraging the achievement of SDGs, using advance technologies for public sector auditing and responding to issue arising from disasters and pandemics.
Source: Bahrain News Agency