On April 12 the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation held a multilateral seminar “Audit of openness and openness in audit”.

During the meeting the SAIs representatives of Austria, Brazil, France, Mexico, Russia and Slovakia discussed the SAIs information and communication policies, the interaction with the target audience, and monitoring openness of public authorities.

Pavel Demidov, Director of Communications Department, shared the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation experience. Timur Makhmutov, Director of the Department for International and Regional Cooperation, took the moderator role.

“It is very symbolic that we discuss the topic of openness on April 12 when the Cosmonautics Day or the International Day of Human Space Flight is celebrated. Perhaps it is the most straight-out subject that we could only consider,”

noted Timur Makhmutov.

Within the presentation, Pavel Demidov introduced approaches used by the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation to create open environment. In more detail he elaborated on the changes that have affected the Accounts Chamber website and the Bulletin over the past several years, as well as on SAI Russia performance in social media and an active growth of followers.

“Social networks are of huge importance today. I would say that may be in ten years social network will accomplish a significant part of the work that we execute today in terms of openness and publicity. People don’t send us letters, but they comment under our posts. Via social media we receive their feedback and a lot of necessary information. Therefore, we tried to make our social networks as user-friendly and attractive as possible. This has brought great results: for instance, the number of our followers on Instagram has grown by 50% since 2020. We try to communicate with people speak with people on their language that reflects social and other issues that they face in their everyday life,”

stated Pavel Demidov.

Presentations were also made by:

• Ulrike Katterl, Head, Planning, Development and Communication Department, Austrian Court of Audit
• Salvatore Palumbo, Federal Auditor of External Control, Federal Court of Accounts of Brazil
• Xavier Bailly, Director for Methods and Data, Cour des comptes, France
• Villalobos Ruiz, General Director, Audit Performance to Budgetary Programs, Superior Audit Institution of the Mexican United States
• Janka Burdová, Director, Communication Department, Supreme Audit Office of the Slovak Republic

Participants will return to the openness in audit discussion at the INTOSAI International Scientific and Practical Conference on April 21–22, 2021.