Seminar: Raising Awareness of International Standards of Supreme Audit Institutions (ISSAI)

                         

 

The NIK (Poland) as Chair of the EUROSAI[1]Governing Board, and the Rigsrevisionen (Denmark) as Chair of the INTOSAI[2]Professional Standards Committee, organized a 2-day pilot seminar Raising Awareness of International Standards of Supreme Audit Institutions (ISSAI).

 

The seminar took place on 28-29 October 2009 in Warsaw. It was organised for all members of EUROSAI, one of seven regional groups of INTOSAI. Its objective was to disseminate the contents of the International Standards of Supreme Audit Institutions (ISSAI) and INTOSAI Guidelines on Good Governance in an European forum, in order to facilitate national implementation and application of the ISSAI standards and INTOSAI guidelines within the SAIs – members of EUROSAI.

 

The seminar was organised with a mixture of presentations on the structure of the ISSAI framework and the content of individual standards, as well as group discussions on national experiences and pending challenges with implementing the ISSAI.

 

Background: The Professional Standards Committee (PSC), established according to the stipulations of the 2005-2010 INTOSAI Strategic Plan, as adopted by the XVIII INTOSAI Congress in Budapest in 2004, works on the development of a common framework for all INTOSAI standards and guidelines and promotes the adoption of professional standards that correspond to the demands and expectations of INTOSAI member institutions. By 2010 the content of the framework will be finalized and from this point on, the main challenge will be the actual implementation and application of the ISSAI at the national level by individual SAIs.   The intention of the current EUROSAI Presidency, appointed for a three-year term by the VII EUROSAI Congress in Kraków in 2008, is to create value for the SAIs in the region. Thus, the Chair of the EUROSAI Governing Boards is very strongly committed to the implementation of the 2008-2011 EUROSAI Training Strategy. One of the top strategic priorities of the strategy is the institutional development through the cooperation with INTOSAI bodies. The intensification of this cooperation is also among the top priorities of the current EUROSAI Presidency.

 

Challenges: On the one hand, the seminar constituted an opportunity for EUROSAI members to exchange knowledge on how to implement efficiently the ISSAI in the national context. On the other hand, the seminar was an important venue for securing feedback to the INTOSAI level on the strategic development of the ISSAI and INTOSAI Guidelines.   The seminar was a pilot project – the first enterprise on such a wide scale in the history of the EUROSAI and INTOSAI cooperation. In this context, the seminar, carried out in collaboration between the Chair of the EUROSAI Governing Board and the PSC, is an important and very positive example of the synergy that might be achieved between the different levels of INTOSAI.

 

 

 

Useful links:

 

NIK                                                                   www.nik.gov.pl

EUROSAI Presidency                                       www.eurosai2008.pl

EUROSAI                                                          www.eurosai.org

Rigsrevisionen                                                 www.rigsrevisionen.dk

Professional Standards Committee                psc.rigsrevisionen.dk

INTOSAI                                                           www.intosai.org

ISSAI                                                                www.issai.org

 

 

 

 

 

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[1] European Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions

[2] International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions