On September 10, 2021, at the International Scientific and Practical Conference ‘The State Audit System in a New Historical Reality’, was held the discussion on the SAI role in the sustainable development goals achievement, the issues of emergency audit and COVID-19, as well as the challenges of public audit in the context of economy informatization.

Representatives of 7 international organizations and 27 SAIs, including the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation, took part in the event.

Aleksei Kudrin, Chairman of the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation and Chairman of INTOSAI, addressed the participants of the Scientific and Practical Conference with a welcoming speech. He stressed the importance of maintaining and developing the independence of the Supreme Audit Institutions as an integral part of efforts to improve the quality of public administration.

"Our goal is to foster fair and responsible governance as a prerequisite for the sustainable development of society and decent human life,"

— noted Mr. Kudrin referring to the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation strategy.

He also drew attention to the fact that nowadays, when defining new approaches to assessing the effectiveness of national goals and programs, the skills of efficient risk appraisal in the implementation of nationally significant projects play a key role.

Dmitry Zaitsev and Svetlana Orlova, Auditors of the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation, made reports during the thematic sessions of the Conference.

In the session 'The Role of Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) in Managing Efficiency and Achieving Sustainable Development Goals of National Economies,' Dmitry Zaitsev spoke about trends in achieving sustainable development goals in relation to such global challenges as the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change. Mr. Zaitsev also noted the importance of building a system of effective monitoring, analysis, and control to achieve sustainable development goals.

"Timely identification, analysis and assessment of risks to the achievement of sustainable development goals, along with the implementation of effective measures to manage them, play a crucial role in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda,"

— summarized Dmitry Zaitsev.

Speaking at the session 'Interaction of Internal and External Audit in Improving the Efficiency of Public Administration,' Svetlana Orlova pointed out that one of the key areas of the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation work is to assist the government agencies in achieving their goals. It is important to promote and develop a strategic audit focused on forecasting the socio-economic development of Russia, the study of problems and challenges of national importance. Special attention in the report was paid to the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation recommendations implementation by government agencies and the development of government accountability to the public. Svetlana Orlova highlighted that the activities of only one the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation is not enough to improve the efficiency of the entire system of public audit.

"It is also essential to develop a system of an internal financial audit. Moreover, it is important to establish their interaction. The main vector of interaction is the elimination of duplication of tasks assigned to external audit and internal financial audit. This state of affairs leads to inefficient use of state resources,"

noted Svetlana Orlova.

The Conference was also attended by regional audit institution representatives. As part of the session 'Role of the SAI in the Audit of Emergencies and COVID-19 Challenges', the auditor of the Accounts Chamber of the Republic of Tatarstan Ilnur Mubarakov made a speech, sharing the experience of the RAI in the modern context. In his speech, Mr. Mubarakov also noted that one of the main tasks is the consistent digitalization of both internal activities and audit events in order to reduce the labor costs of routine work aimed at the formation of analytical information.

"Flexibility and mobility, according to the Accounts Chamber of our Republic management are new qualities that should be inherent in external financial control,"

— noted Mr. Mubarakov.

The Scientific and Practical Conference was timed to the 25th anniversary of the Accounts Committee for Control over Execution of the Republican Budget of the Republic of Kazakhstan.