International Journal of Government Auditing – January 2012
The World Is Desperate for an Independent Voice of Reason
In the year that has passed since my appointment as Chairman of the INTOSAI Governing Board, I have been privileged to interact with a number of regional INTOSAI structures and our key external stakeholders. I have also reflected on developments in the world in which we are living. These interactions and reflections have provided me with some insights on how INTOSAI can respond to these developments and, by doing so, provide what the world is desperate for: an independent voice of reason.
We live in a world seeking liberation from poverty, a poverty that reveals itself in a number of ways—even in unexpected ways and places. We have all witnessed a number of pivotal events unfolding before our eyes. The most recent is the news that the world population has reached the 7 billion milestone. According to projections, the population will grow to 8 billion in 14 years (2025) and 9 billion in 32 years (2043). The next three decades thus present INTOSAI with a unique opportunity to diagnose the root causes of poverty and provide independent insights on sustainable solutions that will mitigate this risk.
In certain situations, we are poor by virtue of the fact that populations are booming in some regions where available resources are being misused by those entrusted with reducing poverty levels, as envisaged in the Millennium Development Goals. Here, fraud and corruption involving business and cross-border activity, as well as selfishness and mismanagement by government leadership, are the biggest enemies of the growing population. Lack of credible, transparent, and timely reporting is another real risk under such circumstances.
In other situations, nations are exposed to extreme levels of poverty by virtue of overcommitment to debt at both personal and government levels. Global political leaders are preoccupied with finding a lasting solution to this trend, which seems to be gripping nations one by one. This fever may have started in the United States and continued into Europe, where it is having serious repercussions. It surely is not going to end there. Consequently, the growing population will be rendered even poorer by this global financial crisis, which is largely caused by government and business leadership’s mismanagement of public funds and lack of transparency to the citizens.
Citizens all over the globe, particularly the youth, are increasingly expecting a better economic life and employment opportunities. Unemployment is a real source of poverty, and it is growing steadily in many communities and resulting in protests and revolutions, as seen recently in some parts of the world. The phenomenon of high levels of youth unemployment prevails throughout the world and with the growing population projections it will—unless mitigated effectively—continue to expand and trigger anger and protests in other parts of the world too. The reality here is that levels of education are not high enough or sufficient to absorb the youth into the productive sectors of the economy as the main impetus of productivity. Instead, most of our young and growing populations fall short of pursuing and acquiring the highest levels of education and training while still in their prime learning years (ages 20 to 30) and rather rush into the job market prematurely—hence the frustration with unemployment and poverty.
The intertwined matters of environmental and natural disasters cannot be excluded from this scrutiny, as they too can present unbearable hardship to the growing population. In this regard, we need elevated levels of commitment by the leaders of our nations to implement and monitor mitigation and adaptation practices. Without such commitments, the world we are living in with its growing population will no doubt be rendered all the poorer as a consequence of unfavorable and unpredictable natural conditions.
In all likelihood, the growing population will be subjected to a number of poverty-related developments in the next three decades and beyond. The key question is what we as INTOSAI can do to mitigate such risks and respond to the loud and desperate call for an independent voice of reason.
At this juncture, we have an opportunity as SAIs to begin to reflect deeply about the significance of our independence in a way that demonstrates our respective abilities to apply this noble master key that we possess. SAI independence can be adapted to any situation in which we as SAIs find ourselves. All we need to use this master key is the ability to understand the door in which we want to use it so that the door can open effortlessly. We need to refrain from complacency when it comes to matters related to the Lima and Mexico Declarations. We need to demonstrate mature leadership, tact, and strategic influence, even in those settings that may at face value appear to be the most difficult, such as capacity building and institutional autonomy.
The bottom line is simple: as heads of SAIs, we need to take primary ownership of the knowledge and capacity building of our institutions. Nobody else, not even the most repressive regime on the planet, should ever influence this space. By building the knowledge base of our SAIs, we make ourselves more dependable, even for the most reckless regimes. The more we build a knowledge base capable of excelling in independent audit scrutiny, risk analysis, and constructive insights, the more we make ourselves dependable, regardless of the environment in which we operate. Let us take advantage of the limited resources that our governments are providing to us as heads of SAIs and build a knowledge base that is capable of providing independent insights to these same governments. The INTOSAI-Donor Cooperation is certainly one of the developments that has provided a lasting solution to the long-standing need for capacity building among SAIs. Let us use this platform and many others that are working for us in our respective regions to liberate ourselves and strengthen our independence with the weapon no one could dare take away from us: the knowledge of auditing that equips us with independent thought and analysis.
History has proven that institutional autonomy will and always does lag behind autonomy of knowledge. The efforts of the United Nations in passing the resolution that enshrines the Lima and Mexico Declarations in international law will fall on barren territory if expertise is lacking in our SAIs. This knowledge autonomy will respond to the risk of world poverty that the growing population is likely to face in all economies of the world—developed, developing, and underdeveloped. All nations are vulnerable, and thus citizens of the world are desperate for that independent voice of reason—the INTOSAI voice of reason, the SAI voice of reason. Now is the time we need to put the INTOSAI motto into practice and continue to share our experiences so that we can all benefit from our respective breakthroughs and success stories.
The 62nd INTOSAI Governing Board meeting was a great revelation and inspiration as it gave us the opportunity to reflect on regional communication regarding capacity building and knowledge autonomy. I am pleased that all our regions are making significant strides in these critical areas and thus taking ownership of them. In this way, we are indeed advancing the fundamental doctrine of independence rather than being complacent and not responding meaningfully to the desperate international call for an independent voice of reason.
As INTOSAI, it is our time to shine, and we shall indeed shine.