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Report

Report. on the activity of EUROSAI Goal Team 2 “Professional Standards” Cristina Breden Audit Director at The Romanian Court of Accounts Member of INTOSAI’s Compliance Audit Subcommittee and of EUROSAI’s Goal Team 2 “Professional Standards”. I. EUROSAI STRATEGIC GOALS 2011-2017.

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  1. Report on the activity of EUROSAI Goal Team 2 “Professional Standards” Cristina Breden Audit Director at The Romanian Court of Accounts Member of INTOSAI’s Compliance Audit Subcommittee and of EUROSAI’s Goal Team 2 “Professional Standards”

  2. I. EUROSAI STRATEGIC GOALS 2011-2017 • The EUROSAI Strategic Plan 2011-2017 was adopted at the VIII EUROSAI Congress 2011 in Lisbon, Portugal. • FourGoalTeamshavebeenintroduced to implementthefourstrategicgoals: • Goal 1„CapacityBuilding“ - Facilitatethedevelopment and thestrengtheningofinstitutionalcapacityof EUROSAI members” • Goal 2„Professional Standards“- Promote and facilitatetheimplementationoftheInternationalStandardsofSupreme Audit Institutions (ISSAI) and contribute to theirfurtherdevelopment • Goal 3„KnowledgeSharing“ - Encouragecooperation and exchangeofexperienceamong EUROSAI members, within INTOSAI and withexternalpartners” • Goal 4„Governance“ - Manage EUROSAI in accordance with the principles of good governance and effective communication

  3. II. Structure of the Goal Team 2 The Professional Standards Team or Goal Team 2( GT 2 ) has been created to implement strategic goal 2. Chair: SAI of Germany Members: SAIs of Austria, Belgium, Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia, Georgia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, Slovakia, Ukraine Invited experts: SAIs of Azerbaijan, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Sweden

  4. Goal Team 2 – inaugural meeting in Bonn in October 2011

  5. III. Objectives of GT 2 • to promote the implementation of the International Standards of Supreme Audit Institutions (ISSAI) and INTOSAI Guidance on Good Governance (INTOSAI GOV) as a relevant part of the capacity building process within the Organisation with due regard of the independence of each individual EUROSAI member to determine its own approach consistent with national legislation.   • to encourage provision of these standards and guidelines in all official EUROSAI languages and, if feasible, in other national languages. It also promotes their use and discussions on further refining methodologies. • to ensure that the ISSAI and INTOSAI GOV remain up-to-date and relevant by feeding back experiences to the INTOSAI PSC and its Sub-committees as well as to other standard-setting bodies within INTOSAI and its Regional Working Groups.

  6. IV. The key tasks and responsibilities of Goal Team 2 “Professional Standards”: 1.Raise awareness of the ISSAI and INTOSAI GOV: • Encourage high quality translation (Russian is also EUROSAI working language); • Publish articles/presentations/expert blogs; • Conduct awareness raising seminars. 2. Support EUROSAI members in implementing the ISSAI and INTOSAI GOV: • Identify needs in implementing ISSAI; • Organise seminars and workshops; • Promote the use of relevant professional materials. 3.Contribute to the further development of the ISSAI and INTOSAI GOV: • Providing information and feedback from EUROSAI; • Taking an active role within the PSC. Sinceits inaugural meeting in October 2011, Goal Team 2 hastaken a number of actionstoimplementthesetasks.

  7. V. Main results achieved: 1) Survey on theapplication of ISSAI within EUROSAI wascarriedout Goal Team 2 conducted a survey on theimplementation of the ISSAI within EUROSAI. About 75% of EUROSAI memberSAIs (37 out of 50) respondedtothequestionnaire. TwoSAIsinformedthattheywerealreadyapplyingthe ISSAI, 35 SAIs (70% of the EUROSAI community) returnedthecompletedquestionnaire. Most EUROSAI membersalreadyapplythe ISSAI, usually a specific part of theframework. The following ISSAI levelshavekeypriority: • Foundingprinciples. • Prerequisites for thefunctioning of SAIs. • Fundamental auditingprinciples. At level 4, focus isplaced on theimplementationguidelinesonfinancial, performance andcompliance audit. MostSAIsusethem as a basistodevelop or revise audit manualsandguidelines.

  8. V. Main results achieved: 1) Survey on the application of ISSAI within EUROSAI was carried out The main obstacles for applying the ISSAI are limited human resources, followed by financial reasons and language problems. To solve these problems, SAIs rely on various strategies: SAIs conduct training, translate the ISSAI in their national languages, adapt their audit manuals to the ISSAI. In addition, they cooperate with other SAIs in the framework of INTOSAI and EUROSAI. SAIs consider a top priority support for the application of the ISSAI with regard to ISSAI level 4, and the INTOSAI Gov. The forms of support that SAIs appreciate most are seminars, cooperation or consulting with other SAIs and guidelines, handbooks or good practice examples. Besides the official EUROSAI languages, several ISSAI have also been translated into 16 other national languages (Azerbaijani, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Dutch, Estonian, Hungarian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Serbian, and Slovak). Parts of these translations are available on the respective SAIs’ websites.

  9. V. Main results achieved: 2) ISSAI translated into Russian. One of the main activities was the translation of ISSAI into Russian. The Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation is providing the Russian ISSAI translations. Goal Team 2 will publish the Russian ISSAI translations on the EUROSAI Website.

  10. V. Main results achieved: 3) Needs of EUROSAI members in implementing the ISSAI and the need for a second awareness raising seminar were assessed. As the large majority of SAIs already apply the ISSAI, it was concluded that there is no need for a second/follow-up awareness raising seminar. Rather than that, Goal Team 2 would like to focus on providing support to the EUROSAI members in implementing the ISSAI. Therefore, Goal Team 2 has liaised with the INTOSAI Development Initiative in launching their “ISSAI Implementation Initiative”, called “3i Programme”. Nine EUROSAI members participate in this global programme: the SAIs of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Kazakhstan, the Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia, Moldavia, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine.

  11. V. Main results achieved: 4) “Relevant” professional material was defined. Goal Team 2 startedto focus on collectinganddisseminatingto EUROSAI membersany relevant guidelines, handbooksandgood practice examples on theapplication of ISSAI. 5) An ISSAI column in EUROSAI Magazine was established. 6) Information on GT2 progress are provided in EUROSAI Newsletters.

  12. V. Main results achieved: 7)Goal Team 2 wouldliketoenhancecooperationwithbodies of EUROSAI and INTOSAI, especiallythe Professional StandardsCommitteeanditssub-committees, as wellaswithexternalpartners. Cooperation with the European Confederation of InstitutesofInternalAuditing(ECIIA) was already established and will start with implementation of INTOSAI GOV 9150 “Coordination and Cooperation between SAIs and Internal Auditors in the Public Sector”. A GT 2 Task group (SAIS of Belgium and Germany) proposed an action plan to ECIIA. First activity: to develop an implementation document (to be confirmed after ECIIA management board meeting); could be accomplished by 2014. Further steps (joint publications/training event) will be discussed after the Memorandum of understanding will be revised in 2014.

  13. V. Main results achieved: 8)Seminar on applying the ISSAI on Performance Audit on 4-5 December 2013. 9) Cooperation between EUROSAI and ASOSAI: A Memorandum of understanding was signed in September 2011. ASOSAI wishes to share information on training, knowledge sharing programmes, experts and to invite each other’s experts to training events. GT 2 is willing to share any information ASOSAI might ask for and to invite ASOSAI experts to training events. 10) At GT2’s initiative, The EUROSAI Governing Board decided to ask the INTOSAI Governing Board to include the classification of ISSAI X in the agenda of its 64th meeting, to reconsider the decision to classify ISSAI X on the level 1 of the ISSAI framework and to decide on the appropriate classification of ISSAI X.

  14. VI. The GT2 members were also informed on the following aspects: a) The PSC is focused on: • Implementing the ISSAI in cooperation with IDI; • Elaborating guidance (together with its Sub-committees and project groups); • Assuring quality of the ISSAI; • Revising the level 4 ISSAI (after 2013). b) SAI Denmark will resign as PSC chair by the end of 2016. c) SAI Sweden will resign after 18 years as FAS chair, after the INCOSAI 2013. d) The revision of ISSAI will be performed: level 2 every 9-15 years, level 3 every 9 years.

  15. VI. The GT2 members were also informed on the following aspects: e) Activity carried out by the EUROSAI GT4 Task Force Audit & Ethics chaired by the SAI of Portugal. The goals of the Task Force are to: • Contribute to raise public confidence in SAIs by supporting the implementation of ISSAI 30 (Code of Ethics). • Promote ethical conduct in public organisations through the SAIs´ activities. Two seminars are planned (Sept. 2013 and Jan. 2014). Comparative study was prepared on formal commitments, mandate, management practices, training etc. f) ISSAI 30 might be revised after 2013 and will be more detailed. g) Further ISSAIs will be revised after INCOSAI 2013, when the underlying ISAs will be revised.

  16. VI. The GT2 members were also informed on the following aspects: h) International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board • a new ISA on disclosure which might lead to a new ISSAI; • audit quality framework from auditees’ perspective  might be interesting for SAIs. i) The Project on Audit Quality Control has developed guidance material (gap analysis tool) for the implementation of ISSAI 40 “Quality Control for SAIs”; j) Documents on performance audit can be found on the website of the Performance Audit Subcommittee (PAS) (http://www.psc-intosai.org/composite-239.htm). k) SAIs of the Baltic & Nordic countries & Poland organized an experts meeting on challenges and opportunities in implementing ISSAI. Presentations are available on the website of the Estonian SAI.

  17. VII. The next EUROSAI GT2 annual meeting This will be hosted by SAI Hungary on the 11-12th of November 2013. According to the agenda of this venue, SAI Lithuania made a proposal to host in 2014 a Seminar on Compliance Audit Standards.

  18. Thank you for your attention!

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