On November 7, 2024, the BRICS SAIs held a knowledge-sharing seminar on “Audit of Large Infrastructure Projects and Infrastructure Maintenance”.

The event was organized by the Office of the Auditor-General of the Republic of South Africa.

During the seminar, the SAIs of Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, and UAE shared their experience, and participants from SAI Iran joined the discussion as audience.

The Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation was represented at the event by Mr. Timur Makhmutov, Director of the Department for International and Regional Cooperation, Ms. Alla Panina, Head of Inspection of the Department for Audit of Regional Development, Housing and Utilities, and Mr. Alexander Bychkov, Deputy Head of Inspection, Department for Audit of Regional Development, Housing and Utilities.

Alla Panina’s report dealt with the implementation of infrastructure projects to promote comfortable urban environment in the Russian Federation. The speaker told her colleagues from the BRICS countries about the priority goal of developing a comfortable and safe living environment for citizens in Russia, as well as about the tools to achieve it. She paid special attention to the methodology and aspects of audit as well as to the results of control activities of the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation in this area. 

Alexander Bychkov presented the approaches of the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation to the audit of the implementation of infrastructure projects in the drinking water supply area and informed the seminar participants about the main performance auditing criteria used for analysis. The presenter spoke in detail about the results of the performance audit of the use of resources for the implementation of measures for the construction and reconstruction of drinking water supply facilities, conducted by SAI Russia.

In the conclusion of the seminar, Timur Makhmutov thanked the BRICS audit community for the active participation in the 4th BRICS SAIs Heads Meeting, which the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation organized on 30–31 July 2024 in the city of Ufa within the framework of Russia’s 2024 BRICS Chairship. He also noted that the importance of BRICS SAIs’ cooperation in public sector audit was reflected in the XVI BRICS Summit Kazan Declaration.

The participants of the seminar agreed to continue sharing experiences on topical issues of public auditing within the framework of the BRICS SAIs work plans for 2023–2024 and 2025–2026.