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REPORT ON THE 12th ASOSAI ASSEMBLY, 5th SIMPOSIUM AND 45th ASOSAI GOVERNING BOARD MEETING IN JAIPUR, INDIA ON 27th FEBRUARY TO 4 MARCH 2012

The 12th Asian Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions (ASOSAI) was held on 27 February to 4 March 2012 in Jaipur, India. The Assembly was attended by 15 observers and 182 delegates from 44 ASOSAI member countries namely Afghanistan, Armenia, Australia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Cyprus, Georgia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, LAO PDR, Maldives, Mauritius, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Oman, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Vietnam, including Malaysia. The National Audit Department was represented by His Excellency Tan Sri Dato’ Setia Ambrin bin Buang, Auditor General of Malaysia, Mr. Zulkipli bin Abdullah, Director of Special Audit & Research Sector, Mr. Abdul Wahab bin Ahmad, Director of National Audit Academy, Mr. Roslan bin Abu Bakar, Deputy Director of Selangor State Audit Office, Ms. Carolina Muyang Lileng, Principal Assistant Audit Director, Mr. Nik Zamzuraidi bin Mohd Nor, Assistant Audit Director and Mr. Azli bin Ariffin, Assistant Auditor, all of Special Audit & Research Sector. The Assembly was hosted by The Comptroller and Auditor General Office of India which aims to provide opportunities for members of ASOSAI to exchange views and experiences on issues and developments in public sector auditing as well as to strengthen the relationship between them.

Delegates for the 12th

ASOSAI Assembly

OPENING CEREMONY OF THE 12TH ASOSAI ASSEMBLY

The Assembly was inaugurated by His Excellency Mr Shiv Raj Patil, Governor of Rajasthan. The opening ceremony was attended by Mr. Ashok Gehlot, Chief Minister of Rajasthan, Mr Terence Nombembe, Chairman of INTOSAI, Dr Josef Moser, Secretary General of INTOSAI and Ms Helena Abreu Lopes on behalf of Mr Guiherme d’Oliveira Martins, President of EUROSAI. Mr. Shiv Raj Patil, Governor of Rajasthan in his address, mentioned that auditors play an important role in ensuring the accountability of public institutions and thus improve governance and public monies are spent prudently. Accordingly, it is necessary for auditors to be equipped with professional skills, new and innovative auditing techniques in order for them to implement the auditing task effectively. Therefore, cooperation between major audit institutions will helps improving such capacity. He compliments the work done by ASOSAI and INTOSAI in aligning the auditing standards of their members with the best practices worldwide and capacity building through training and experience sharing. He advises SAIs to take a more proactive role in advising government departments by critically look at all government processes to identify the ones that have become redundant and obsolete. He said SAIs need to accordingly modify their methodology and work processes too by going beyond the scrutiny of government records and look at impact of government schemes at the grass root level, including feedback from the citizens. Several new techniques for evaluation of

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public programmes are being tested by development experts and auditors must consider how to use such techniques in audit work so that inputs in refining public policy become more meaningful. He also pointed out that there is a lesson that government managers need to learn from the private sector, namely, continuous innovation in products and processes. Across the world the private sector has not only made substantial efficiency gains but also vastly improved the quality of their services and products. He pointed out that there is a need to create an eco-system in government that encourages innovation and creation of new paradigms of accountability. He also pointed out that a related development in recent years has been the emergence of public private partnerships (PPPs) that try to take advantage of the managerial efficiencies of the private sector in either creating new infrastructure or in modernising or improving the performance of government institutions. He expects SAIs to ensure that public interest is adequately safeguarded in the design and implementation of PPPs where adequate incentives exist for genuine private partners to improve the quality of public services. He believes through this assembly, ASOSAI member will share experiences and wisdom to enable them to respond to challenges of good governance.

Invited Guests Delegates

FIRST PLENARY SESSION

The ASOSAI Assembly was divided into two plenary sessions. At the first plenary session on 29th February 2012, the assembly had agreed to accept the following reports: a) Report of the Secretariat activities since the previous Assembly by the Secretary General

of ASOSAI b) Approval of the ASOSAI Financial Statements for FY 2009-2011 and Report of the Audit

Committee: ASOSAI Financial Statements for FY 2009-2011 by Secretary General of ASOSAI.

c) Audit Committee’s report on external audit result on the ASOSAI Financial Statements for FY 2009-2011 by the Audit Committee

d) Formulation of the multi-year budget plan for FY 2012-2015 by the Secretary General of ASOSAI

e) Report on the ASOSAI training activities: Special presentation by the SAI of India: Capacity building activities of the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India

f) Report on the INTOSAI Development Initiative (IDI) activities by IDI g) Mid-term report on the implementation of the ASOSAI Strategic Plan for 2011-2015 by

Secretary General of ASOSAI h) Report on the result of the 9th Research Project by Secretary General of ASOSAI i) Report on the ASOSAI Journal by SAI India j) Report on the ASOSAI-EUROSAI Cooperation: The 1st ASOSAI-EUROSAI Joint

& Conference MoU on cooperation between ASOSAI and EUROSAI by Secretary General of ASOSAI

k) Report on the progress of the INTOSAI Initiatives: Integrating the Declarations of Lima and Mexico into UN documents; and Implementation of the International Standards of

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Supreme Audit Institutions (ISSAIs) by Secretary General of ASOSAI l) Report on the INTOSAI Professional Standard Committee by SAI China

m) Report on the INTOSAI Working Group on IT Audit by SAI India n) Report on the INTOSAI Finance and Administration Committee by SAI Saudi Arabia o) Special speech by the Capacity Building Committee of INTOSAI: Capacity Building of

SAIs Morocco p) Report on the ASOSAI Working Group on Environment Audit by SAI China q) Proposal of the Governing Board for amendment to Rule 15 of the Rules and Regulations

of ASOSAI r) Announcement of Malaysia as the host SAI for the 13th Assembly in 2015 and SAI Korea

as the next Secretary General for 2012-2015 s) Announcement of the ex-officio members of the Governing Board for 2012-2015 as

follows: SAI India as Chairman for 2012 - 2015; SAI Malaysia as host for 13th ASOSAI Assembly in 2015; SAI Korea as Secretary General for 2012-2015; SAI Japan as Training Administrator for 2012-15; and SAI Pakistan as ex-chairman

At this assembly, an announcement for the self-nominating SAIs for the ASOSAI Governing Board and Audit Committee for 2012-2015 and explanation of the voting procedures were made. The nominees for the Governing Board are Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Mongolia, Philippines, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia. Thailand and United Arab Emirates, while nominees for the Audit Committees are Bangladesh, Jordan, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal and Turkey for the as well as a description of the voting procedures.

5TH ASOSAI SYMPOSIUM

Also held in conjunction with the Assembly is the 5th ASOSAI Symposium with the theme Assimilating the International Standard of Supreme Audit Institutions (ISSAIs) which held on 2nd March 2012. The symposium started with welcoming remark by Mr. Vinod Rai, Chairman of ASOSAI and proceeds with introductory remark by Dr. Kun Yang, Secretary General of ASOSAI, Keynote Address by Mr. Anupam Kulshreshtha, Deputy Comptroller & Auditor General of India and Mr. Gert Jonsson, Deputy Auditor General of Sweden, special report by Dr. Dong Dasheng Auditor General of China, and Dr. Sergey Stepashin, Chairman of Account Chamber of Russia. Among the panel presentation are SAI Australia, SAI Bhutan, SAI Cyprus and SAI Pakistan.

Welcoming remark by Chairman of ASOSAI Malaysian delegates

SECOND PLENARY SESSION

The second plenary session held on 3 March 2012 witnessed the election of ASOSAI Governing Board Members and Audit Committee. As a result of the election, the composition of Governing Board Members for 2012 – 2015 are China, Bangladesh, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Russian Federation and Thailand whilst Audit Committees selected are Turkey and Jordan.

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At this session, the delegates accepted the chairman report on the 5th ASOSAI Symposium. This session also witnessed a special presentation by the Secretary General of Asia Regional Association of Public Accounts Committee (ARAPAC), speech by His Excellency, Tan Sri Dato’ Setia Ambrin bin Buang, Auditor General of Malaysia as the host for the 13th ASOSAI Assembly in 2015 and Dr. Kun Yang, the Auditor General of SAI Korea as the Secretary General of ASOSAI for 2012 – 2015. The closing remark by the Chairman of ASOSAI, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India ended this session.

Distribution of ballet papers Casting of vote by Tan Sri AG of Malaysia

Election result for Governing Board Members Election result for Audit Committee

45TH ASOSAI GOVERNING BOARD MEETING

The 45th ASOSAI Governing Board Meeting was held in the afternoon of 3 March 2012. The meeting begins with opening address by Mr. Vinod Rai, Chairman of ASOSAI for 2012 – 2015. The meeting proceeded with confirmation of the Minutes of Meetings of the 44th ASOSAI Governing Board Meeting. Among the meeting agendas are as follow:

The meeting agreed to choose Audit to Detect and Corruption: Evaluation of the Fight against Corruption and Money Laundering as the topic for the 10th ASOSAI Research Project.

Presentation of report on the 13th ASOSAI Assembly by His Excellency, Tan Sri Dato’ Setia

Ambrin bin Buang, Auditor General of Malaysia, and host for the Assembly. In his report, His Excellency informs the meeting that SAI Malaysia is in the midst of preparation for the assembly which will be held on 10 – 12 February 2015 at Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (KLCC). He said all meetings and accommodations for the delegates will be at the selected hotels nearby the convention centre. SAI Malaysia is also in the process of creating a website specifically for the assembly where user id and password will be prepared for all ASOSAI members to access information on the events planned. A link to the website of selected hotels will also be shown in the website and member SAIs can make reservations for the delegates direct with the hotels at a special rate negotiated by SAI Malaysia. He

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said, the 6th ASOSAI Symposium is scheduled to be held on 13th February 2015 in Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre. SAI Malaysia will inform the Secretary General of ASOSAI the theme selected to be distributed to SAIs members for comments. The host will request the Secretary General for SAIs member’s willingness to present working papers or country reports on the theme or become the panel at the symposium. The 48th ASOSAI Governing Board Meeting will be held on 9th February 2015 at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre which is a day before the assembly and the 49th ASOSAI Governing Board Meeting will be held on the afternoon of 11th February 2015 at the same venue which is after the end of the second plenary session of the assembly. Among the social programs planned are a day tour to places such as Malacca historical city, Genting Highlands, Kuala Lumpur or Putrajaya on 12th February 2015 and selected recreational activities including golf and bowling on 14th February 2015. He seeks cooperation of all SAIs to inform of their participation in advance to facilitate logistic preparation.

The meeting agreed to accept the proposal by SAI Philippines to host the 46th Governing

Board Meeting in 2013. The meeting also agreed to accept the proposal by SAI Russia to host the 47th Governing

Board Meeting and the 2th ASOSAI-EUROSAI Joint Conference in 2014. The meeting was ended with a closing remark by the ASOSAI Chairman for 2012 – 2015.

Welcome Remark by Chairman of ASOSAI for 2012 – 2015 Presentation of Report for the 13th

ASOSAI Assembly in 2015 by His Excellency Tan Sri Dato’ Setia Ambrin bin Buang,

Auditor General of Malaysia as host

Special Presentation by Secretary General of ARAPAC Malaysian Delegates

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EXCURSION PROGRAMMES

Delegates were taken on a tour of Jaigarh Fort, Amber Palace and Jal Mahal in Jaipur, Rajasthan on 1st March 2012 and Taj Mahal in Agra, Utter Pradesh on 4th March 2012.

On Top of Jaigarh Fort Jal Mahal at the background

Entrance of Amber Palace Front corner of Taj Mahal