Eighth SC Meeting Brazil 2015

Importance of Independent Public Sector Auditing Stressed by the INTOSAI-Donor Cooperation

Brazil, October 8—The 8th Steering Committee Meeting of the INTOSAI-Donor Cooperation took place on October 6-7, 2015. Over 50 representatives from the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI) and the international donor community confirmed the Cooperation’s strategic direction to enhance support for capacity building of Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs). The Minister President of the Federal Court of Accounts of Brazil, Aroldo Cedraz, hosted the meeting. First time published 21.10.2015

Importance of Independent Public Sector Auditing Stressed by the INTOSAI-Donor Cooperation

The Cooperation partnership continues to be relevant, five years following its establishment. A recent independent evaluation of progress highlighted an increase in peer-to-peer support over these years, reduced duplication and more coordinated capacity building efforts among donors. Support to SAIs is becoming more demand driven and increasingly aligned behind SAIs’ strategic plans. Through the Cooperation, a global initiative was launched to support implementation of auditing standards, and a wide range of projects to strengthen the capacity of SAIs have been executed at the regional and individual country levels.

The Steering Committee welcomed these positive developments and also emphasized the added value of the SAI Performance Measurement Framework (SAI PMF), the Global Call for Proposals for SAI capacity building initiatives, and the publically available SAI Capacity Development Database in advancing increased awareness and support for SAIs.

The Cooperation reaffirmed the importance of the SAI PMF as a critically important diagnostic tool for assessing the strengths and areas for improvement in SAIs and the ways that they contribute to good governance, transparency and accountability. The SAI PMF is being developed under the leadership of the INTOSAI’s Working Group on Value and Benefit of SAIs with the support of the Cooperation. It is being piloted globally and will be put forward for approval at the INTOSAI Congress in 2016.

The Global Call for Proposals Report to the Committee demonstrated continuing support for SAIs strategic capacity building initiatives with over 50 percent of SAI development proposals from the 2013 Global Call being matched with donor financial support. The Committee called upon all donors and governments to recognize the role of independent public auditing and its contribution to good governance and to increase their financial support for SAI capacity building through project support and by contributing to the SAI Capacity Building Fund. The Fund, financially supported by Switzerland, has provided grants to seven SAIs to implement their strategic capacity building plans in the past two years, which is a small fraction of the amount needed to make a difference.

To realize the full potential of the Cooperation, the Steering Committee set three priorities for the future of capacity building efforts:
•To complete the development of the SAI PMF to enable it be endorsed by the INTOSAI congress in 2016 and to be recognized internationally as the premier global diagnostic tool for SAI capacity development assessments.
•To take stock of lessons learnt to increase funding for SAI development plans.
•To redevelop and enhance the ways of sharing information and knowledge on effective SAI capacity building initiatives, and finally to develop a more robust evidence based framework to demonstrate the results of the Cooperation in supporting the intended outcomes of the Cooperation and in support of the SAI’s roles in good governance and accountability for the use of public resources to citizens of their nations.

Note to editors:

The INTOSAI-Donor Cooperation was established in 2009 with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between INTOSAI and 15 donors to augment and strengthen support to developing country SAIs (the number of donor signatories to the MoU has since increased to 23). The SAI of Saudi Arabia is Chair and the SAI of United States is Vice Chair for INTOSAI. The World Bank is Chair and the UK Department for International Development is Vice Chair for the Donors. The Secretariat for the INTOSAI-Donor Cooperation is hosted by the INTOSAI Development Initiative.

For further information on any of the above activities or the INTOSAI-Donor Cooperation in general, please contact the INTOSAI-Donor Secretariat within the INTOSAI Development Initiative:

Telephone: + 47 21 54 08 10
E-mail: INTOSAI.Donor.Secretariat@idi.no
Web: www.idi.no