INTOSAI Development Initiative

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INTOSAI Development Initiative and the Inter-Parliamentary Union webinar series 2024

IPU-IDI webinar series 2024 “Enabling impact of public oversight through better understanding and use of audit results in Parliament”

IDI and IPU collaborate to hold a joint series of webinars in October and November 2024.

Collaboration between Supreme Audit Institutions and Parliaments is important to ensure proper oversight of public expenditures and performance. The joint webinar series "Enabling impact of public oversight through better understanding and use of audit results in Parliament" aims to demonstrate good practices for using audit reports in Parliament and discusses the potential extended use of reports in Parliamentary processes.

Join us for the three webinars:

Financial audit impact: Using reports to inform budgetary processes

In this first webinar, we will explore how the information in financial audit reports can be used to feed into other parliamentary processes. We aim to highlight what the SAIs are already doing to ensure that financial audit results have a broader impact and consider how parliamentarians can use audit results in budgetary processes. Please meet the speakers below. 

Date: Tuesday, 1 October 2024 (14:00 – 15:30 CEST)
Registration link: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEsfuitqD4sE9ylUh7fX-gdfka3kzgPV0GJ

Compliance audit impact: Building arguments for improving systemic weaknesses in governance

In this session, we will discuss how SAIs convey to parliament government-wide weaknesses that have been uncovered through compliance audits. We will also look into what information parliament needs from the SAI to be able to provide useful input for government reforms.

Date: Thursday, 7 November 2024 (14:00 – 15:30 CET)
Registration link: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAlcuquqzkpGdaPvpEfmeSsFdbfHEFLwU6f

Performance audit impact: Audits as input for sector policy development and dialogue

During the third webinar, we will ask how performance audits have helped inform specific policy areas and how relevant parliamentary committees have used topical sector audit reports to hold government accountable or inform debates on new sector policies. We will also examine how SAIs can liaise with relevant parliamentary committees to ensure the information is more broadly disseminated.

Date: Tuesday, 26 November 2024 (14:00 – 15:30 CET)
Registration link: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUld-CqpjgrHN2qePYmQ38OcB77vqoHfIxh

Target audience: The events are targeted towards SAI leadership, senior SAI staff, and members of Parliament involved in oversight.

Duration: Each webinar will last 90 minutes

Format: The sessions will be in English with simultaneous interpretation into Arabic, French and Spanish.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

1st Webinar: Financial audit impact: Using reports to inform budgetary processes:

Meet the speakers

 

Speaker Bios: 

Dr Darren Carabott currently serves as the President of the Maltese Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and is the Shadow Minister for Internal Affairs, Security, and Reforms. He has been an active member of the PAC since his election to the Maltese Parliament in 2022. In August 2022, Carabott was elected to the Commonwealth Association for Public Accounts Committees (CAPAC).

Tornike Shermadini serves as the Head of the Economic Activities Audit Department at the State Audit Office of Georgia, a role he has held since 2010. Prior to this, he worked at Ernst and Young LLC, holding senior positions from 2006 to 2010. In 2012, Tornike gained valuable experience at the European Court of Auditors, where he contributed to audits of EU research projects. He holds an MBA in Finance and is currently pursuing a PhD in Financial Fraud Investigation Techniques. Since 2013, he have been an active INTOSAI Compliance Audit Subcommittee member, participating in developing audit standards. His expertise spans financial, compliance, and performance audits. Tornike has also served as an invited expert in several IDI initiatives, contributing to developing the Quality Assurance Checklist, the ISSAI Compliance Assessment Tool (iCAT), and related training materials. Additionally, he is the co-author of the Financial Audit Methodology at the State Audit Office of Georgia.

Sadie Smith is a Parliamentary Relations Manager at the National Audit Office, and for the past six years has been responsible for wider support to Parliament. This involves liaising with Committees, Members, and staff of both Houses of Parliament in order to promote the work of the NAO and assist MPs and peers in holding the government to account for the spending of public money. Until 2018, Sadie worked for 17 years in the House of Commons in a variety of roles, latterly as the external communications advisor to the then Speaker of the House, John Bercow.

Linda Mills is a Parliamentary Relations Manager at the National Audit Office (NAO) and for the past seven years has been responsible for the NAO’s relationship with the Committee of Public Accounts. She has worked at the NAO for over 20 years as an Audit Manager of NAO value-for-money reports and investigations. Her recent reports include the Iinvestigation into government’s response to the collapse of Thomas Cook and WannaCry cyber-attack and the NHS as well as several reports on children’s services. Prior to this her work has covered grant-making in government, estate management and government digital services. Linda worked in economic consultancy before joining the NAO in 2001.

Katarina Stenmark is the Committee Secretary in the Committee on Finance for about 15 years with a broad perspective on financial audit from working both in Parliament and the Swedish national audit office as well as in the Government Offices in Sweden.

Moderator:

Karma Tenzin is a Senior Manager in the Professional and Relevant SAIs department of the INTOSAI Development Initiative (IDI). In this role, he is dedicated to promoting and supporting Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) in implementing sustainable, high-quality, and high-impact financial audit practices and enhancing the system of audit quality management. He supports the IDI’s flagship certification initiative on Professional Education for SAI Auditors (PESA) qualification on Financial Audit Stream. He is also involved in IDI’s exploratory project on sustainability reporting and assurance in the public sector, which focuses on the role of SAIs. Additionally, Karma oversees IDI's collaboration with the Asian Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions (ASOSAI).  

We look forward to welcoming you to the webinar!