On November 23, 2021, the 75th meeting of the INTOSAI Governing Board Meeting took place under the leadership of the Chairman of the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation, Chair of the INTOSAI Governing Board Aleksei Kudrin. In a pandemic the event was held online with the participation of 20 members of the Governing Board.

Addressing the participants with a welcoming speech, Aleksei Kudrin noted that INTOSAI managed to successfully adapt to the new reality, the pandemic has become an incentive to optimize the work of SAIs, introduce innovations and rethink the place and role of audit in modern conditions.

“SAIs have made significant progress in adopting a strategic approach to audit, including in the implementation of national development agendas and the SDGs, implementing digital audit practices and increasing the openness and transparency of their work.”  

– he stressed.

In the first part of the meeting, the participants were presented with the Report of the Chair of the INTOSAI Governing Board, the Report of the Supervisory Committee on Emerging Issues (SCEI), the Report of the First Vice-Chair (Brazil) and the Report of the INTOSAI Secretary General (Austria).

Presenting the results of ongoing projects under the INTOSAI Chairmanship, Aleksei Kudrin noted that the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation seeks to create conditions for the progressive development of the organization and each SAI. Among the priorities of the Russian chairmanship are contributing to an open exchange of knowledge and experience, promoting and developing a strategic approach to audit, developing approaches to auditing the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and promoting openness and inclusiveness of SAIs and government bodies. To ensure openness and accessibility of knowledge, to increase the professional potential of auditors, the INTOSAI Digital University (U-INTOSAI) was launched and the First Online INTOSAI International Scientific and Practical Conference was held under the auspices of the INTOSAI Chair.

The COVID-19 pandemic has proven the importance of expanding collaboration on health systems auditing. As SCEI Chair, the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation has prepared and circulated amongst SCEI members a concept note, proposing the overall design of a new Task Force on Health and Social Care Audit. As Possible areas of the Group's activities are sharing best practices, the discussion of the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic for the health sector as well as measures for increasing the sustainability of social assistance systems for the population.

As a result, all proposals of the AC RF were approved by the GB members, including the project of the Digital University for the INTOSAI community and the task of the General Secretariat with calculating the potential costs and efforts of making a foreign language an official INTOSAI working language and make appropriate recommendations to the INTOSAI Governing Board for the next meeting. Also, proposals were approved to hold in March 2022 the second International Scientific and Practical Conference under the auspices of the INTOSAI Chair, dedicated to the topics of online education and the green economy, and the launch of the INTOSAI Task Force on Health and Social Care Audit.

In the second part, the Governing Board approved the reports of the INTOSAI Goal Committees and Regional organizations. The concept of INTOSAI's new Strategic Plan 2023–2028 was presented to the members of the Governing Board. The GB supported the retaining the existing four goal structure, approved the renaming the crosscutting priorities to “organizational priorities”, approved the initiative to develop separate strategic and operational plans.

Discussing the prospects for holding the XXIV INCOSAI in the traditional format in Brazil, it was decided to follow the development of the situation with the pandemic. If it would be impossible to hold a face-to-face Congress in 2022, it is proposed to hold a "virtual Congress" under the leadership of Brazil in 2022 with the adoption of decisions on key issues of current activities and in-person Congress in 2023.