“Ensuring the Effectiveness of Development Cooperation”

Transparency and Accountability for Ensuring Quality and Effectiveness of Development Cooperation

Josef Moser Secretary General of INTOSAI

Preconditions for Ensuring Quality and Effectiveness in Development Cooperation

Accountability mechanisms for ensuring quality and effectiveness of development cooperation at local, national, regional and global levels are key and only possible if:

• transparency in development cooperation,

• accountability of development actors and

• a true and fair view of public development resources

are in place.

Slide 2

Transparency and Accountability

SAIs can create the necessary transparency and accountability because:

• SAIs can provide independent, unbiased and reliable information on executive activities including development cooperation to governments, parliaments and citizens

• SAIs enhance transparency and accountability:

• Financial audits – insight in the financial situation of

the state;

• Compliance audits – make irregularities visible;

• Performance audits – reveal information on

efficiency, effectiveness and economy of all

government areas.

Slide 3

Preconditions for Effective Work of SAIs

But:

SAIs can unfold their full potential to create transparency, accountability and a true and fair view of the state budgets only if essential preconditions are fulfilled:

• Independence of SAIs;

• Capacity of SAIs;

• Adequate accounting systems.

Explicitly underlined by the UN General Assembly Resolution A/66/209.

Slide 4

Obstacles for SAIs

Currently we face a series of obstacles for SAIs to fully unfold their potential:

Lack of transparency and accountability due to:

• Lack of legal, financial and organizational independence of SAIs from governments;

• Obstacles to disseminate and publish audit reports;

• Lack of a comprehensive mandate to audit government performance;

• Lack of possibilities to provide a formal audit opinion on government accounts because of shortcomings of rules for accounting, reporting and monitoring of public and state budgets.

Slide 5

Necessary Measures for Better Accountability Mechanisms

For improving accountability mechanisms at local, national, regional and global levels, the following measures are necessary:

1. Strengthening the independence of SAIs - necessary precondition for an effective audit quality and the effectiveness of development cooperation at the national level

2. Building capacity of SAIs for auditing performance of governments and state budgets;

3. Improvement and harmonization of public accounting in terms of accrual accounting

Slide 6

Recommendations to Move Forward

It is key to include these three essential elements in the SDGs:

1. Independence of SAIs

2. Capacity building of SAIs

3. Improvement of the public accounting systems (accrual accounting)

Slide 7

Appeal

• Now: Unique opportunity to set the stage for really effective and transparent accountability mechanisms for SDG implementation at all levels.

• Task for all of us:

- Enhancing accountability mechanisms for quality and effectiveness of development cooperation by

- Including independence and capacity building of SAIs and the improvement of public accounting systems in the SDGs.

• This would eliminate the lack of transparency, accountability and national ownership.

Slide 8

Thank you very much!

Slide 9