On March 27-28, 2018 the 11th meeting of INTOSAI Working Group on Key National Indicators (KNI) and Expert Group on Key National Indicators of the Council of Heads of Supreme Audit Institutions of the CIS Member States* chaired by the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation was held in Rome (Italian Republic).

Representatives from SAIs in Austria, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Brazil, Bulgaria, Indonesia, Italy, Kazakhstan, China, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, the United States, Finland and the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) also took part in the WGKNI meeting. In addition, it was attended by Monika Gonzalez-Koss from the INTOSAI General Secretariat and Robert Cox (SAI of New Zealand) who represented the Forum for INTOSAI Professional Pronouncements (FIPP). They also invited some external experts such as Giuseppe Pisauro, Chairman of the Parliamentary Budget Office in the Italian Parliament, and Professor Enrico Giovannini from University of Rome Tor Vergata to participate in the WGKNI meeting.

At the meeting, the Russian delegation reported on the main outcomes of the WGKNI activities in 2017-2018, including on the progress in preparing methodological documents developed by the group. They are guidelines on auditing the KNI developed and used within the INTOSAI Professional Pronouncements System and macroeconomic forecasts.

The Russian delegation also presented Theme II core provisions and areas for the 23d INCOSAI** to be held in 2019 in Moscow. The presentation was aimed at discussing the structure of and the progress in developing the INCOSAI Principle Paper with those WGKNI members, who were also engaged in the Theme II Expert Panel. Agreed wording of the Principle Paper is planned to be developed by the meeting of the SAI leaders who participate in the Expert Panel, which will be held on May 24, 2018 at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (St. Petersburg).

A bilateral Russian-Italian meeting was also held as part of the visit to negotiate the interagency cooperation aimed at consolidated argumentations of the Russian and Italian SAIs in the preparation of the Principle Paper on the 23d INCOSAI Theme II.

*The INTOSAI Working Group on Key National Indicators was launched in 2007 following the resolution of the 19th INCOSAI held in Mexico. WGKNI currently includes 21 Full Members and chaired by the Russian SAI. Its main objective is to collect and disseminate information related to key national indicators and share the best practices, methodological documents and lessons learned. The WGKNI meetings are held annually. The WGKNI dedicated webpage is available on the website of the Russian Accounts Chamber to ensure the information interaction between the participants in between the meetings.

The Expert Group on Key National Indicators started its work in 2008 in accordance with the decision of the Council of Heads of Supreme Audit Institutions of the CIS Member States. At the moment, the Expert Group consists of 9 members. The group is chaired by SAI Russia. The main objective of the Expert Group is to promote the implementation and monitoring of the key national indicators system of socio-economic development at national and international levels, as well as the development of performance auditing in the CIS Member States. Expert Group meetings are held annually. To ensure the information interaction of members between the meetings, an Expert Group page was created on the basis of the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation web-site.

The meeting of the INTOSAI Governing Board held in November 2017 in Graz (Austria) approved the following INCOSAI themes:

- Theme I: Information Technologies for the Development of the Public Administration (to be chaired by SAI of the People's Republic of China);

- Theme II: The Role of the Supreme Audit Institutions in the Achievement of the National Priorities and Goals (to be chaired by the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation).