Task Force on Donor Funding Meets with Donor Community
The Finance and Administration Committee’s Task Force on Donor Funding met with international and bilateral donors in Bern, Switzerland, on June 20, 2008, to discuss strategies for enhancing capacity-building in SAIs. INTOSAI was represented by the SAIs of Mexico (Chairman of the Governing Board); Saudi Arabia (Vice-chairman of the Governing Board and Chairman of the Finance and Administration Committee); the United States (Chairman of the Task Force on Donor Funding); task force members Denmark, Morocco, Norway, India, and the United Kingdom; and the INTOSAI Secretary General. The donor community was represented by the World Bank; the European Union; the Inter-American Development Bank; and the national aid agencies of Belgium, Canada, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
Caption: INTOSAI Representatives at the Bern meeting included
Arturo González de Aragón, Mexico; Osama Faquih, Saudi Arabia;
and Gene Dodaro, the United States.
An INTOSAI discussion paper—“Partnering for Progress to Fight Corruption, Promote Transparency, Improve Performance, and Ensure Accountability: INTOSAI, The World Bank and the Donor Community Working Together to Strengthen the Capacity of Supreme Audit Institutions”—served as the basis for the discussions. The auditors general of Mexico, Saudi Arabia, and the United States presented the INTOSAI position and discussion paper. The presentation underscored INTOSAI’s core values of independence and autonomy; its firm commitment to promote good governance, enhance accountability and transparency, and fight corruption; and its long tradition of SAIs helping each other (expressed in its motto, “Mutual Experience Benefits All”).
The donors responded favorably to the INTOSAI presentation and welcomed the INTOSAI initiative. They noted that it is consistent with their policies and programs to fight corruption and improve governance, accountability, and transparency. As a next step, the donors agreed to prepare a written response to the INTOSAI paper in the form of a “road map to a multidonor trust fund.” The donor paper will articulate the specifics of the proposed INTOSAI/donor partnership, including trust fund governance, mechanics, and related issues. It will be drafted for INTOSAI’s review by August 2008 and will then provide the basis for a follow-up INTOSAI/donor meeting to be held in London in October 2008. With this timetable, a formal proposal will be available for the INTOSAI Governing Board’s deliberation at its November 2008 meeting in Vienna.
A donor working group consisting of the World Bank, the Canadian International Development Agency, and the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development will take the lead to draft the donor paper and will consult with the chairmen of INTOSAI’s Finance and Administration Committee and Task Force on Donor Funding.
For more information, contact the task force at drachd@gao.gov.
Working Group on the Fight against Money Laundering and Corruption
In November 2007, INTOSAI converted the Task Force on the Fight against International Money Laundering to a permanent working group and broadened its scope to include anticorruption activities. In early March 2008, the working group held its first meeting in Lima, Peru—the home of its chairman, Dr. Genaro Matute—and developed a proposed plan to guide its work from 2008 to 2011. The plan has the following four objectives:
- Promote cooperation and support among member SAIs to help them prevent and detect money laundering and corruption, to facilitate information exchanges, and to develop typologies and guidelines for SAIs to use. Activities include creating a virtual forum to exchange points of view and ideas and to post questions and answers.
- Promote cooperation between INTOSAI and international organizations involved in the fight against corruption and money laundering. Activities include identifying and developing communication and cooperation channels with key international partners for the working group.
- Identify country regulations, policies, strategies, and programs that SAIs can use to detect and prevent corruption and money laundering. Activities include (1) administering a questionnaire about activities, programs, strategies, and policies of SAIs to combat money laundering and corruption and (2) collecting regulations and legal background in these areas from SAIs.
- Identify relevant training programs on money laundering and corruption. Activities include completing and posting on the working group’s Web site a list of training programs and certifications in detecting and fighting money laundering and corruption.
The working group’s next meeting is scheduled for late July 2008 in Cairo, Egypt.
For additional information, see the working group’s Web site:
www.contraloria.gob.pe/task_force/index.htm.