Webinar on “Openness of SAIs and Ensuring Inclusiveness in Emergency Conditions”
The COVID-19 Expert Group initiative within INTOSAI Supervisory Committee on Emerging Issues held its third webinar on September 17, 2020 which explored the topics of SAI openness and ensuring inclusiveness in emergency conditions.
The audience of the event was comprised by representatives from 66 SAIs who listened to presentations from SAIs Brazil, Russia, USA and INTOSAI Development Initiative.
The reports and comments by the speakers presented a broad range of views and perspectives on the topics of the discussion supported by real-life examples and experience both during and before the pandemic.
Namely, the idea of inclusiveness found reflection in the context of SAI engagement with its own employees, especially valuable during the current crisis. Another perspective examined inclusiveness as a focus of traditional audit work and embracing the Leave No One Behind principle as one of the main guidelines of the SAIs core business.
Moreover, the discussion covered examples and the need for inclusiveness across the INTOSAI community, as the support from the international community and other SAIs has becoming increasingly necessary to assure the continuity of operations of some SAIs during the pandemic.
Separately, the meeting centered upon the concept openness which ranged from general guiding principles regarding the work of government agencies and SAI communication strategies to particular examples of making the audit results known to general public and stakeholders. The speakers discussed some tricky problems resulting from broad citizen engagement and shared their experience in ensuring accountability and transparency in the pandemic conditions.
You can watch the full version of the webinar on the official Youtube channel of the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation.
