On March 15, a joint seminar of the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation and the Chamber of Accounts of the Republic of Azerbaijan dedicated to ensuring the audit quality control was held in videoconference mode.

The event was attended by Galina Izotova, Vice Chair of the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation, and Jafar Gasanov, auditor of the Chamber of Accounts of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

Opening the meeting, Galina Izotova highlighted the importance of the audit quality control for improving the SAI employees’ skills and their professional development.

“We welcome the fact that the Supreme Audit Institution of Azerbaijan has created a separate sector and its work will be focused on this essential area. From our side we are ready to help our colleagues in the CIS in mastering this new matter.”

In his turn, Jafar Gasanov stressed that

“building up an effective quality control system requires studying the international methodological practices and real expertise in this area, and we are especially interested in the experience of our colleagues from those countries with which we have established successful partnership and historical friendly relations.”

During the seminar with the SAI Azerbaijan, Elena Boytsova, the Director of the Financial Audit Department, presented the standards in the field of audit quality control, and the principles of building up an environment; she also shared templates of working documents and determined the features of personnel training. Similar issues were raised during an earlier seminar with the SAI Tajikistan.

In addition, on March 5, a meeting was held between Anna Belenchuk, an Assistant to the Chair of the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation, Yulia Yakovleva, the Head of the Division at the Research and Methodology Department, and the representatives of the SAI Azerbaijan. The meeting was dedicated to the reports quality control. The SAIs Russia and Azerbaijan representatives discussed the forms of reports following control and expert-analytical engagements, their structure and evaluation criteria.

The issue of ensuring the audit quality control is up to become increasingly relevant among the SAIs of the Commonwealth countries due to the expansion of the SAI powers and competencies. Thus, the opening of a two-year cycle of seminars – the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation lectures for the representatives of the Council of Heads of Supreme Financial Audit Institutions of the CIS Member States – is planned for April 2021. The main topics for 2021 will be: the audit quality control, openness of the SAI activities, human capital development, audit methodology, and digitalization.