ECOSAI CIRCULAR 2012

Published by: Office of the Auditor-General of Pakistan Constitution Avenue, Islamabad, Pakistan TABLE OF CONTENTS ECOSAI Circular 2012

Page Title No.

News Section

1. Re-election of Senior President of Supreme Audit Court of I.. R of Iran 1

2. Appointment of the New Chairman of the Accounts Committee for Control over Execution of the Republican Budget-the SAI 2

3. Resignation of Mr. Sabyrbek Moldokulov- the Chairman of the SAI Kyrgyz Republic 2 4. TurkishCourt ofAccounts(TCA) 150th YearCelebrations International Events and Trainings 3

5. 1st ASOSAI-EUROSAI Joint Conference

6. The 5th meeting of INTOSAI Working Group on Accountability for and 4 Audit of Disaster-relatedAid 5 7. The Kick-off Meeting of Parallel/Coordinated Audits on Disaster Preparedness held on October 25th 2011 inAntalya, Turkey 7 8. Training Programs Conducted by the TurkishCourt ofAccounts(TCA)

9. Training Conducted by the SAI Iran on PerformanceAudit 8

10. Training of the Delegates from the Chamber of Accounts of the SAI 9 Azerbaijan at the TurkishCourt ofAccounts 11 11. Collaboration between the SAIs Pakistan andAzerbaijan on SAPSystem andACL 12 12. International Intensive Training Program (ITP) in Performance Audit by the SAI Pakistan 13 Articles and Contributions

13. Environment Audit of Caspian Sea-the SAI Iran 14 14. Auditing on Water-CDWA&CDWI- the SAI Pakistan 18 ECOSAI INFORMATION ECOSAI Circular 2012

President Dr.Abdulreza Rahmani Fazli The Senior President of the SupremeAudit Court of the Islamic Republic of Iran Secretary General Mr. MuhammadAkhtar Buland Rana TheAuditor General of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan Member SAIs Afghanistan Azerbaijan Iran Kazakhstan Kyrgyz Republic Pakistan Tajikistan Turkey Turkmenistan Uzbekistan Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (Observer) Members of the ECOSAI Governing Board Afghanistan Iran Kyrgyz Republic Pakistan Turkey Editorial Board of the ECOSAI Circular Mr. Junaid Mushtaq Qureshi Director General (IR&C)

Syed UmarAli Shah Banoori Director (IR&C)

Mr.Muhammad Ishaq Deputy Director (IR&C) NEWS SECTION ECOSAI Circular 2012

1. Re-election of Senior President of - has published many articles in local and SupremeAudit Court of I. R. of Iran international journals Upon the decision of the Budget & Audit Selected professional experience: Committee of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, the Iranian Parliament, Dr. · Abdulreza Rahmani Fazli was nominated to Member of the Fourth Islamic continue to serve as the Senior President of Consultative Assembly (Iranian Supreme Audit Court of Islamic Republic of Parliament) Iran for another 4 year term. On Tuesday · Member of Budget &Audit Committee July 3rd 2012, the Iranian Parliament of the Parliament, unanimously approved the decision of the · Acting Chairman, Deputy of Planning, above mentioned Parliamentary Committee. Deputy of Parliamentary Affairs, Based on this approval, Dr. Rahmani Fazli will continue to serve as the Senior President Deputy of Political Affairs of Iranian of SAC for the period 2012 to 2016. National Radio & T.V.for 10 years · Deputy of Economic & International Biography of Affairs of Ministry of Interior Dr. Abdulreza Rahmani Fazli, Senior · Deputy of Faculty of Literature & President of Supreme Audit Court of Iran Humanities of Ferdousi University of Mashhad · Member of the national Public Culture Council · Member of High Council of Information Technology · Chairman of Regional Economic Cooperation Organization · National Exemplified Manager for two years Dr. Abdul Rahmani Fazli, born in 1959 in Shirvan, is a scientific and political figure in Work Policies: Iran. He was nominated by the Budget and Audit Committee of Parliament and · The policy of prevention from financial consequently was unanimously elected by irregularities in auditees the Islamic Consultative Assembly (Iranian · Continuous training of auditors and Parliament) as the Senior President of SAC executive managers and government for a four year term in July 2008. He was organization/agencies elected as the Chairman of ECOSAI (Economic Cooperation Organization · Submitting audit reports to Parliament Supreme Audit Institutions) in October timely plus preparing interim audit 2010. He is married with 4 children. He likes reports sports especially mountain climbing and · Audit conducted using information swimming. He is also interested in social technology and cultural activities. · Emphasis on education and research at Education: the SupremeAudit Court · Interaction and cooperation with - PhD in Geography, major Planning regional and international audit - Member of the Teaching Board of Shahid organizations Beheshti University

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2. Appointment of the new Chairman Planning of the Republic of of the Accounts Committee for Kazakhstan. From January 10, 2007 he Control over Execution of the combined this position with the Republican Budget-the SAI position of Deputy Prime Minister of Kazakhstan. the Government of the Republic of Profile of Mr. Aslan Mussin Kazakhstan. · On August 18, 2007 during the snap elections he was elected to the Majilis of the Paliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan on behalf of the "Nur Otan" People's Democratic Party. · From September 2, 2007 to October 13, 2008 the Chairman of the Majilis of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan. · From October 13, 2008 to September · 21, 2012 Head of the Administration Born on January 2, 1954 in Bestamak of the President of the Republic of village, of Aktobe oblast, Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan. Married and has three · children. In 1975 he graduated from Since May 15, 2009 - Member of the Institute of National Economy Political Council and the Bureau of with the "economist" qualification. He "Nur Otan" People's Democratic Party. began his career in 1975 in the Aktobe · Since September 21, 2012 Chairman Oblast Statistical Office. In 1976-1977 of theAccounts Committee for Control he served in the SovietArmy. over Execution of the Republican · From May 1977 to January 1979 - Budget. continued working in the Aktobe · Aslan Mussin was awarded with the Oblast Statistical Office. "Kurmet"(1999), "Barys" of III degree · From 1979 to 1991 he occupied posts (2004), "Barys" of II degree (2010) in the Aktobe Oblast Communistic orders, anniversary and memorial Party rising from the position of medals, as well as the Order of instructor to Secretary thereof. "Nations Friendship" (, 2004). · From 1991 to 1993 - Chairman of Aktobe oblast State Anti-Monopoly 3. Resignation of Mr. Sabyrbek Committee. Moldokulov-the Chairman of the · From June 1993 to December 1994 - SAI Kyrgyz Republic Deputy, First Deputy Head of the Aktobe Oblast Administration - Head Mr. Sabyrbek Moldokulov resigned of the Aktobe Oblast Office of from the post of the Chairman of the Economy. Accounts of the Kyrgyz Republic effective · From December 1994 to September from 1st October 2012. He has rendered 1995 Head of the Aktobe Oblast meritorious services in the capacity of the Office of Economy. Chairman of the Accounts of the Kyrgyz · From September 1995 to April 2002 Republic. The International Organization of Akim ofAktobe Oblast. the Supreme Audit Institutions (ECOSAI) · From April 2002 to October 2006 has greatly benefited from his rich Akim ofAtyrau Oblast. experience & dedication. · On October 4, 2006 was appointed Minister of Economy and Budget

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4. Turkish Court of Accounts (TCA) 150th Year Celebrations

On 29 May 2012, Turkish Court ofAccounts The Turkish guests of the celebrations, (TCA) - the Supreme Audit Institution of including President of the Republic of Turkey- celebrated the 150th anniversary of Turkey, Mr. Abdullah Gul, Speaker of the its establishment, with various activities Turkish Grand National Assembly, Mr. including an international symposium Cemil Cicek and several cabinet members, devoted to sharing experiences and best were a testament to the great importance practices between the SAIs in attendance. Turkey attaches to the Turkish Court of Accounts. Representatives of 26 supreme audit institutions; including Mr. Terence The celebrations were followed by an Nombembe, Chairman of the INTOSAI international symposium, consisting of two Governing Board, Dr. Josef Moser, sessions. Both sessions were chaired by Mr. Secretary General of INTOSAI, Mr. Terence Nombembe, the Chairman of the Guilherme D'Oliveira Martins, President of INTOSAI Governing Board. EUROSAI, Mr. Manuel Núñez Pérez, Secretary General of EUROSAI and Dr. During the first session, President of the Osama Jafar Faquih, Chairman of the European Court of Auditors, Mr. Vitor ARABOSAI attended the celebrations and Caldeira delivered a speech, underlining the the subsequent symposium. important contribution that enhancing transparency, accountability and public Messrs. Terence Nombembe, Guilherme audit can make to restoring public D'Oliveira Martins and Osama Jafar Faquih confidence; followed by the speech of Mr. delivered excellent speeches, underlining Manuel Núñez Pérez, Secretary General of the role and importance of supreme audit EUROSAI, who noted the connection institutions and praising the crucial role the between the causes of current financial crisis TCA has played in Turkey, as evidenced by and the efficient management of all the fact that it is mentioned in all Turkish available resources; and described how Constitutions since its establishment. Supreme Audit Institutions can adapt to the

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new responsibilities the current by Ms. Ellen Van Schoten from Netherlands circumstances bring about. First session was Court of Audit followed this presentation, in concluded by a speech by Mr. Nombembe which Ms. Schoten explained the concept of himself. integrity as it pertains to audits, especially those performed by their SAI and gave some Second session started with the presentation examples of the activities they perform in of the Chairman of ARABOSAI, Mr. Osama this area. Second session was concluded by Jafar Faquih; which covered such topics as the speech of Mr. Josef Moser, Secretary the importance, value and benefits of the General of INTOSAI; which was about the SAIs for citizens and society, the growth of crucial topic of the relationship of SAIs with accountability demands of citizens, the the Parliament and their contribution to possible cooperation between SAIs and strengthening democracy. citizens, UN and INTOSAI. A presentation 5. 1st ASOSAI-EUROSAI Joint Conference

Turkish Court of Accounts (TCA) hosted On 22 September 2011, Mr. Cemil Çiçek, “1st ASOSAI-EUROSAI Joint Conference” Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of on 22-24 September 2011 in Istanbul, the Turkey, Dr. Recai Akyel, President of city that acts as the literal bridge between Turkish Court of Accounts, Mr. Muhammad Europe andAsia. Akhtar Buland Rana, Auditor General of Pakistan and Chairman of ASOSAI and The Governing Board Members of Guilherme d'Oliveira Martins President of EUROSAI and ASOSAI attended the “1st Portuguese Court of Auditors and President ASOSAI-EUROSAI Joint Conference”, of EUROSAI delivered the opening main theme of which was “Challenges for speeches. Ensuring Transparency and Accountability in Public Financial Management”. A total of As a part of the main theme, the first sub- 88 colleagues participated in the theme was “Basic Approaches and Conference. Challenges for Ensuring Transparency and

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Accountability”. This session was China, Hungary and Vietnam delivered moderated by Dr. Recai Akyel, President of presentations during this session. TCA. Heads of SAIs and colleagues from Turkey, Russia, Korea, Poland, Japan, Iraq, At the Conference, EUROSAI and ASOSAI Saudi Arabia, the Netherlands, the ECA, formally adopted Istanbul Memorandum of Pakistan and India delivered presentations Understanding (MoU) which is a framework on various topics within the context of this for launching, developing, and following up sub-theme. the regular cooperation between EUROSAI and ASOSAI, under the global umbrella of The second sub-theme was “The Challenges INTOSAI. for Ensuring Transparency and Accountability in Specific Areas of Public By signing the Istanbul MoU, both sides Financial Management”. First session of this expressed their willingness to develop this sub-theme was moderated by Mr. Guilherme cooperation through a wide range of actions, d'Oliveira Martins, President of Portuguese covering strategic and technical issues and Court of Auditors and President of complementing the strategic initiatives EUROSAI. Heads of SAIs from Portugal, launched by the SAIs with activities at Bangladesh, Spain, Kuwait and Indonesia technical level in the areas of training, delivered presentations during this session. exchanges of information and experiences, capacity building, networks of experts, The second session of the second sub-theme databases, cooperative audit initiatives, was moderated by Mr. Muhammad Akhtar communication tools, information Buland Rana, Auditor General of Pakistan technology, and other cooperative audit and Chairman of ASOSAI. Heads of SAIs issues and initiatives. and colleagues from Pakistan, Belgium, 6. The 5th meeting of INTOSAI Working Group on Accountability for and Audit of Disaster-related Aid

Turkish Court of Accounts (TCA) hosted Group on Accountability for and Audit the 5th Meeting of the INTOSAI Working of Disaster-related Aid (AADA) on

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October 23-27, 2011 inAntalya, TURKEY. speech of Mr. Gijs de Vries, Member of the European Court of Auditors (ECA) and The Working Group on Accountability for Chairman of the Working Group. At the and Audit of Disaster-related Aid was meeting, Mrs. Margareta Wahlström, UN established by taking into account the lack of Special Representative of the Secretary- a clear information structure and the risk of General for Disaster Risk Reduction insufficient accountability for aid flows and delivered a speech on international the problem of high susceptibility to waste, initiatives on disaster risk reduction and fraud and corruption identified at the XIXth government accountability in this area. INCOSAI in Mexico, 2007. The Working Video message of Claus Sorensen, Director- Group has focused on the development of General of Humanitarian Aid and Civil guidance and good practice in the area of Protection (ECHO) of the European accountability by concentrating on activities Commission was transmitted and a directed to stakeholders (multilaterals, aid presentation on IFAF from a donor's organizations, governments, private perspective: accounting for EU auditors), and in the area of audit by humanitarian aid by Mr. Vijay Bhardwaj, Supreme Audit Institutions. Within this Head of Unit, DG ECHO was made. Mrs Working Group, TCA is responsible for two Lyn Provost, Controller and Auditor- separate tasks which are the preparation & General of New Zealand shared their own elaboration of the guidance for auditing experience of auditing disaster-related aid. disaster-preparedness, and the organization Besides, Mr. Adlai Goldberg, Partner, Ernst and coordination of a parallel audit, on the & Young, made a presentation on the basis of the Draft Audit Guidelines on sustainability of the humanitarian aid cycle. disaster preparedness. During the meeting, all members of WG shared the progress made on the tasks for The 5th meeting of Working Group started which they are responsible and discussed the with the welcome speech of Dr. RecaiAkyel, revised versions of draft guidance President of the Turkish Court of Accounts documents. and host of the meeting, and the introductory

The following SAIs are members of the INTOSAI Working Group-AADA:

European Court of Auditors (Chair) Jamaica Philippines

Indonesia Japan Sri Lanka

Netherlands (Vice Chair) Kenya South Africa

Austria Korea Turkey

Chili Norway Ukraine

France Pakistan United States

Georgia Peru

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7. The Kick-off Meeting of Parallel/Coordinated Audits on Disaster Preparedness held on October 25th , 2011 inAntalya, Turkey

Within the INTOSAI Working Group on advised that audit scope should be specified Accountability for and Audit of Disaster- by looking from a broad perspective. related Aid, Turkish Court of Accounts Shortly, a framework of auditing of disaster (TCA) has organized a parallel audit on preparedness will be drafted. disaster-preparedness. Main purposes of this parallel audit are to provide input for the SAIs of Azerbaijan, Chile, India, Indonesia, draft Audit Guidelines on disaster Netherlands, Pakistan, Philippines, preparedness, which was prepared and had Romania, Ukraine, Turkey (Lead) been improved by TCA, to test it, and to volunteered to participate in the parallel improve its contents. audit. At the end of this joint initiative, it is expected from this cooperation among the During the kick-off meeting, the main mentioned SAIs to create a synergy, and elements of audit design according to the obtain good results in the field of auditing of INTOSAI auditing standards were disaster preparedness. evaluated; the preliminary schedule for parallel audit was elaborated and discussed with the participating SAIs. Besides it was

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8. Training Programs Conducted by the Turkish Court of Accounts (TCA)

Analysis, Main Question and Sub- Questions, Question Pyramid, Developing Audit Criteria, Identify Audit Approach, The Design Audit Matrix, Methods of Gathering Evidences, Interview and Focus Group, Survey, Examine of Documents - Observation, Data and Evidence Analysis, Field Work, Developing Audit Conclusions and Recommendations, Working Paper, Documentation of Audit Evidence, Turkish Court ofAccounts (TCA) conducted Reporting, Follow-up Stage of Performance VFM (Value for Money) audit training Audit, ITAudit,Audit Management. programs for the Kazakhstan and Mongolia SAIs. In addition to these, a training program covering public administration accounts and Delegations from Kazakhstan, consisting of final account transactions were conducted Members, Heads of Departments and for a delegation of four colleagues from SAI auditors, attended the VFM audit training Azerbaijan. programs conducted twice, first between 18 and 22 of July 2011 and then between 17 and At the conclusion of the training programs, 21 October 2011 inAnkara. the certificates of attendance were given to the participants by PresidentAssoc. Prof. Dr. And on 04 15 June 2012, the same training Recai Akyel. During the evaluations program was conducted for a delegation following the training programs, the from Mongolian National Audit Office necessity of the improvement of cooperation (MNAO), consisting of 10 colleagues. Head between SAIs and promoting the sharing of of Performance Audit Department and experiences and knowledge via joint auditors from various parts of MNAO training and audit activities were discussed attended the two-week training program. and especially the importance of increasing these kinds of training programs was The programs covering theoretical and underlined. practical training gave us the opportunity to share the Turkish experience regarding VFM audit. The topics covered were as follows: Audit Standards, Principles and Procedures of Performance Audit, Comparison of Performance Audit and Performance Evaluation, Understanding the Entity and its Environment, Selection of Performance Audit Topics, Audit Objective, Issue

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9. Training Conducted by the SAI Iran on Performance Audit

By: Morteza Asadi Head of International Relations Department Supreme Audit Court of Iran

1. Introduction: and International Affairs welcomed the The training programme on Performance audience. He expressed his great pleasure Auditing was organized and held in Iran as that the Supreme Audit Court of the Islamic th the results of the decision of the 11 ECOSAI Republic of Iran hosts the current training Training Committee in October 2011 in activity in the beautiful city of Tehran. He Ankara, Turkey. Based on this decision the added that this scientific gathering will Supreme Audit Court of the Islamic provide the participants from ECO member Republic of Iran was assigned to hold a states the opportunity to exchange ideas, training program on Performance Auditing. skills and experience in the field of Public In this regard, SAC organized and held the Audit. same programme from 9-20 June 2012 in Tehran. This training program was attended Mr. Mohammed Saberi, Member of the by participants from the SAIs of Azerbaijan, Judiciary Board of SAC and Head of the Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Iran and Turkey. TechnicalProfessional Committee of Even though SAI Pakistan and Afghanistan Performance Auditing Training Programme nominated participants to the same course also welcomed the participants. He briefed they could not finally attend this event due to the audience about the scientific and administrative constraint. technical activities prior to this event for finalization of course contents, selection of 2. Course objective: trainers and teaching experts, and The objective of the training program was to enrichment of the training material. Mr. Ali make the participant familiar with the Akbar Mohammadi, Director General of concept of performance audit, its three Training Center was the last speaker at the components (economy, efficiency, and opening ceremony. He expressed his effectiveness), selection of topics, audit outmost happiness to host a training planning, determination of criteria, programmne for the SAIs of brotherly familiarity with audit evidence, its types and countries of ECO. He stressed that the sources, method of collecting evidence, experience gained from such training analyzing evidence and findings, method of activities will lead to the improvement of evaluating findings, drawing conclusions, public audit in ECOSAI region. He wished a and developing recommendations, method pleasant stay and fruitful discussioni n this of reporting performance audit, training event. characteristics of a good report, and recommendations follow-up. 4. Delivering the Programme: The programme was delivered in the 3. Opening Ceremony: Petrochemical Training Complex located in The opening ceremony was attended by a very calm and peaceful area in northern ECOSAI Training Programme participants, Tehran. The state of the art technologies and authorities of SAC, lecturers and training educational tools and instruments were used experts. At this ceremony, Mr. Rahmatullah for delivering lectures. The classes were Sharifi, Director General of Public Relations held from 8:30 am to 5:30 PM which was

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quite long and intensive according to some Iran where they visited the most attractive participants. During the program, 48 areas and historical places of the city. teaching hours were delivered in 10 days. Brain storming, discussion, exchange of 7. Survey from participants: views and experience together with case At the end of the training program a survey studies were the characteristics of every question was distributed among the lesson. During the programme, the participants to receive their comments and participants also shared their experience, feedback regarding the same training and challenges they face in their respective programme. In reply to the question that countries regarding the planning and how the participants evaluate the quality of implementation of performance audit the above mentioned training programme? projects with their fellow colleagues. They replied as in the following: 5. Closing ceremony: At the last day of the training programme, v The training program was very useful the participants, the trainers, and organizers and the teachers were qualified. paid a courtesy visit to Dr. Abdolreza v High level and high quality Rahmani Fazli, Senior President of SAC. In v The training program was very this meeting, Fereydoon Hemmat, Chairman successful. All the details of the of the Training and Planning Center of SAC programme were designed well. The briefed the Senior President about the lecturers were experienced with training programme from the stage of performance auditing and accordingly organization to the stage of implementation. they taught the lessons in an attractive way. The programme was planned very Dr. Rahmani Fazli expressed his extreme well. pleasure that SAC of Iran has been the host v In order to obtain good experience, this of one important training activity within the training programme was excellent for framework of ECOSAI. He also stressed on me. the continuation of such training activities v The programme was both well planned and exchange of knowledge and experience and well delivered by the organizers of in the field of public audit among ECOSAI this course. Member states. At the end of this ceremony, v The training programme was very the course completion certificate was interesting for us. This kind of audit is handed over to participants by the Senior new to my country. President of SAC. v The programme was very beneficial, 6. Cultural activities: fruitful and encouraging for me. Although there were some repetitions, Apart from training activities, it was decided the overall conduct of the programme to make foreign participants familiar with was very relevant, to the point and well the Iranian culture, tradition and civilization. organized. In this regard, various visits were planned in different parts of Tehran where the 8. List of Participants: participants had the opportunity to explore The participants from Azerbaijan were: the social and cultural life of people in Mr. Sanay Pashayev and Mr. Nizami Tehran. The visit included shopping malls, Muradov. The SAI Kazakhstan sent two traditional markets, handicraft market, participants namely: Mr. Myrzabayev Vagiz museums and historical places. In addition and Mr. Kudaibergenov Baurzhan. to Tehran, the participants had the chance to Kyrgyzstan representative to same training visit Isfahan, a famous touristy city in central programme were: Mr. TalasbekAlymoldoev

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and Mr. Bekhazar Esnov. TheS upreme 10. List of Trainers/ organizers: AuditC ourt of Iran selected the following Totally seven lectures were involved in auditors to attend the course: Mr. Iman delivering the training programme. They Karnama, Mr. Abolfazl Yousefnejad, include: Mr. Hadi Favachi, Mr. Mehdi Mr. Abbas Talei and Mr. Mansour Dadavi. Rezaee, Mr. Nabiullah Elyasi, Mr. Mansour The last but not the least our friends from Shams Ahmadi, Mr. Masoud Mohammad SAI Turkey included: Mr. Muhammad Emin pour, Ms. Neda Alaei and Ms. Sakineh Sahiner and Mr. Murat Ince. Bikdeli. 9. Technical- Professional Committee: In order to prepare the teaching material for Also Ms. Fatemeh Abdoos was in charge the training programme a Technical- with translation of documents and Professional Committee was created. The supervision and quality control during the same Committee was headed by whole programme. In addition, Mr. Mohammad Saberi, and included: Mr.Kiumarth PoorAyoubi and Mr. Amir Mr. Hadi Favachi, Mr. Amir Khakpour, Abbas Safizadeh and Mr. Masoud Abbas Ghaderi Azad and Dr. Ali Kiyaee. Movaffagh Yami were in charge with Altogether the Committee held 37 meeting coordination and holding extracurricular/ to develop the course content and supervise cultural events. the rehearsal of lesson by lecturers. 10. Training of the Delegates from the Chamber of Accounts of the SAI Azerbaijan at the TurkishCourt ofAccounts

The capacity building is being paid special by the colleagues of the Chamber for more importance at the Chamber in analyzing the effective cooperation with the consortium reports in public finance management that will render consultancy services on within the consultancy services to be CAPSAP. Taking into account that the rendered on Strategic Development Plan of Turkish Court of Accounts has sufficient the Chamber of Accounts and CAPSAP rich experience on this component of project. In connection with this it is of external public finance control system, the prioritized issue learning leading delegation of the Chamber of Accounts got international experience on public accounts training at Turkish Court of Accounts on 16-

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20 July 2012 to learn the experience of the accounting in public institutions, Turkish Court ofAccounts in this area. organization and conducting financial audit, audit based on computer assisted auditing The President of the Turkish Court of techniques (CAAT) and relevant experience Accounts, Mr. Recai Akyel received the on this area, closure of accounts in public delegation and gave relevant instructions to institutions and the activities done at the the appropriate structural divisions of the center on this area, as well as the evaluation Turkish Court of Accounts for effective of training and professional skills organization and holding the training. improvement programmes and broad During the training the delegation were exchange of experience were done on thoroughly informed on general information separate topics. about the of the Turkish Court of Accounts, At the end of the training the President of the the experience of the Turkish Court of Turkish Court of Accounts, Mr. Recai Akyel Accounts on control over the public gave certificates to the members of the accounts, the general principles of delegation. 11. Collaboration between the SAIs of Pakistan and Azerbaijan on SAP System and ACL The raison d' etra of all multilateral The presentations were greatly appreciated organizations is meaningful cooperation in by the audience. The representatives of the mutually beneficial areas. The Economic Ministry of Finance and Adviser to Minister Cooperation Organization of SupremeAudit of Taxes showed keen interest in the SAP Institutions (ECOSAI) is definitely no system. It was also agreed upon that the SAI exception. It is committed to disseminate Azerbaijan would make a proposal for a and diffuse state of the art knowledge and study tour to the SAI Pakistan for examining skills among its member countries. One such the SAP system in details. The proposed instance of knowledge sharing that warrants visit of a delegation from Azerbaijan to mention was the participation of Mr. Khurram Khan, Audit Officer, from the SAI Pakistan is being finalized. The Adviser to Pakistan as a guest speaker at a seminar on Minister of Taxes, Azerbaijan was “ComputerAssistedAudit Technologies and impressed by the strategy adopted by Improvement of Public Expenditures and Project to Improve Financial Reporting and Revenues”, from 08-12 Febuary,2012 at Auditing (PIFRA) for imparting training of Baku,Azerbaijan. ACL, the manner of selection of trainees, evaluation of trainees as well as training. The Audit Officer, who is an Audit Command Language (ACL) Master Trainer, Suffice it to say that the significance and made three separate presentations during his effectiveness of exchange of useful and stay inAzerbaijan on the following themes: practical information cannot be overemphasized. It is an immense window i. The role of Computer Based Audit of opportunity for importing and adopting Technology in the Monitoring of best practices from other places where they Public Expenditures and Revenues are a success story. In nutshell meaningful ii. An Overview-SAP and ACL cross cultural and trans-national interaction applications creates a win-win situation for all the iii. Data Access from Divergent stakeholders Accounting Platforms by usingACL

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12. International Intensive Training Program (ITP) in Performance Audit by the SAI Pakistan

The SAI Pakistan has been playing a key role Expo Centre Lahore. As interactive in fostering the concept of performance exercises, the participants developed audit. Over the years the PerformanceAudit Preliminary Survey Reports and based on Wing of the Department of the Auditor data provided developed PerformanceAudit General of Pakistan has provided Reports.As encouragement for involvement performance audit training through the and quality output, prizes were distributed Intensive Training Program (ITP) not only to on best efforts. its own auditors through regular training sessions but by also offering it to auditors The opportunity provided by the from the regional countries. international attendance not only resulted in imparting skills and techniques on Having the experience of almost twenty five Performance Audit but the forum helped in years for undertaking such trainings for its sharing mutual experiences amongst the own staff and for friendly countries, the SAI participants and in further strengthening of Pakistan has gained vast experience as the bonds between their SAIs. The participants th trainers in Performance Auditing. The 27 freely exchanged views on issues that they International Intensive Training Program confronted in undertaking and was inaugurated at Lahore this year on 1st implementation of Performance Auditing in March, 2012 with great success. The course their respective SAIs. In keeping with the lasted for five weeks and 15 participants tradition the trainees also enjoyed cultural attended who belonged to the SAIs of activities that included visits to historical Botswana, Brunei, Iraq, Kuwait, Malaysia, sites and excursion trips to the Border Flag Nepal, Turkey and Pakistan. A special Retreat Ceremony at Wagha, the National feature of the program this year was the Heritage Museum (the Lok Virsa) and the inclusion of a Project in Solid Waste Murree hills. Management, which provided the participants with a hands-on exercise in At the end of the course the Additional performance auditing. They also had the Auditor General of Pakistan Mr. Ghulam opportunity of undertaking visits to projects Abbas Nakai distributed certificates to the like the Ashiyana Housing Scheme and the participants.

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13. Environmental Audit of Caspian Sea, the SAI Iran

By: Seyed Abbas Mirnajafi Principal Auditor Supreme Audit Court of I. R. Iran

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14. Auditing on Water (CDWA &CDWI)

By: Sajid Mehmood Raja, Director Revenue Receipt Audit, the SAI Pakistan

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20 Designed & Printed by: Printing Corporation of Pakistan The ECOSAI is a regional forum of the Supreme Audit Institutions of the South and Central Asian Regions. The Organization is founded in 1994 and aims at promoting the state auditing profession in member countries, through exchange of ideas, experiences and by holding seminars, conferences, workshops and training courses.

In line with the decision of the 9th ECOSAI Governing Board Meeting, held in Islamabad, Pakistan on January 26, 2004 the ECOSAI Circular is published every year by SAI Pakistan before the BOG meeting.

The editors invite submission of articles, special reports, and news items which may be sent to the International Relations and Coordination Wing of the SAI Pakistan at the following e-mail address:

[email protected]

Comments & Contributions ECOSAI Secretariat Office of the Auditor General of Pakistan Constitution Avenue, Islamabad - Pakistan Telephone: +92-51-9224042 Fax: +92-51-9224085 e-mail: [email protected]