Knowledge Sharing Activities of SAI India

Introduction

Comptroller and Auditor General of India (SAI India) is acknowledged as a leading organization working in the field of knowledge sharing and capacity development activities in the field of Public Auditing. SAI India plays a leading role in knowledge sharing at INTOSAI, ASOSAI and in bilateral forums.

Knowledge Sharing Committee:

SAI India is an active member of International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institution (INTOSAI) and chairs one of the main committee of INTOSAI Committee on Knowledge Sharing and Knowledge Services – Goal 3 (KSC). The mandate of the KSC is to encourage SAI cooperation, collaboration, and continuous improvement through knowledge sharing, including providing benchmarks, conducting best practice studies, producing Audit guidance material and performing research on issues of mutual interest and concern.

The KSC main committee today has 104 members and three observers which includes all members from the Working Groups and Task Forces under Goal 3. The following Working Groups and Task Forces are functioning under KSC:

Each of these groups is engaged in developing useful products like standards, guidance, handbook etc. in the chosen specialized aspect of public auditing. The Working Groups under KSC are developing various International Standards for Supreme Audit Institutions (ISSAIs) and INTOSAI Guidance for Good Governance (INTOSAI GOVs) for the entire INTOSAI community. (For more information on KSC, please visit www.intosaiksc.org)

INTOSAI Community Portal

Very recently, in order to facilitate continuous interaction in the INTOSAI community, SAI India as KSC chair developed an INTOSAI Community Portal (www.intosaicommunity.org) in collaboration with the INTOSAI Development Initiative, Norway (IDI) The portal was launched in November 2015. The portal has facilities like Community of Practice, Blogs, Chat Rooms, Library, Video Conferencing, Polls/survey, etc. to enable better communication and sharing of ideas amongst member SAIs during the time between the annual meetings of the INTOSAI Governing Board and the triennial Congresses. The INTOSAI Community Portal has replaced the online INTOSAI Collaboration Tool developed by SAI-India in 2005.There are at present seven Communities of Practice supported by the Portal.

Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, soon after adoption of Sustainable Development Goals the 2030 Agenda by United Nations,KSC and the IDI planned to cooperate in designing and delivering a comprehensive Capacity Development Programme on auditing implementation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The programme envisaged fourfold results framework:

The Community of Practice on Auditing implementation of SDGs is already available on INTOSAI Community Portal www.intosaicommunity.org. The other components of the programme are planned for 2016 to 2018.

Research Projects

As Chair of KSC, SAI India initiated a survey to find out the need for research on cross cutting issues which are otherwise not studied in depth. Based on a favorable response from several SAIs, a second survey has been commissioned to rank the five shortlisted research topics in order of priority. At the forthcoming KSC meeting, a decision would be taken to select two topics for research.

Editor of ASOSAI Journal

SAI India is the editor of the Asian Journal of Government Auditing since its very first issue in 1983. The bi-annual journal is the main communication and knowledge sharing tool of ASOSAI community. The Journal is an official organ of ASOSAI and has the objectives of promoting sound and effective State Audit Systems and providing ASOSAI members with a forum for sharing experiences in different areas of State Audit. Under India’s editorship, the journal made a transition in 2015 and adopted a theme based approach. The journal was recently converted as an e –journal and is available at www.asosaijournal.org.

ASOSAI Research project

India has been actively participating in various research projects conducted by ASOSAI since the 1^st Research project. Presently,11^th research project on Audit of Public Private Partnerships is underway and SAI India is participating in the project. The earlier completed projects dealt with important areas of public auditing and accountability like:

ASOSAI Seminars

Since 2007 ASOSAI has been organizing seminars on issue of interest for its member SAIs. The first such seminar was hosted in India on the topic of Managing Audit results. India has always been an active participant and has also supported the organization by deputing subject matter experts for many of these seminars. These seminars have proved to be a Forum for rich interaction and sharing of experience among for the participants. Important topics like ‘Quality Assurance in Audit’ and ‘How to integrate Ethics and Integrity into auditing practices of an SAI’ have been covered and very meaningful recommendations have come up from these deliberations.

Bilateral Seminars with SAIs of China, Kuwait and Poland

SAI India under its active bilateral MoUs has been organizing annual bilateral seminars with SAIs of China, Kuwait and Poland on topics of mutual interest, wherein experiences of the SAIs on various issues of mutual interest are shared.