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Supreme Audit Institutions’ work aims at promoting good governance in the public sector, thus contributing to reinforce stakeholders’ trust.
In order to effectively hold governments and public bodies accountable for a good use of public resources, a Supreme Audit Institution (SAI) must conduct all its activities in accordance with the fundamental principles of independence, transparency, ethics, quality and accountability. An independent and professional SAI lives the principles that it expects from the audited public sector entities, leading by example.
In this context, enhancing the ethical framework of SAIs is crucial for them to pursue their role in an effective manner. This is stressed in the main INTOSAI principles and standards, such as ISSAI 12. It is now also clearly highlighted in the recently revised ISSAI 130, endorsed by the INCOSAI 2016 at Abu Dhabi. The implementation of this revised INTOSAI Code of Ethics is now a significant challenge for SAIs.
In an environment more and more conducive to a whole-of-government approach and to a wider consideration of the several components of good governance, SAIs are increasingly expected to assess the public sector systems and policies to prevent corruptive and fraudulent practices. Thus, looking into ethical frameworks and to the application of integrity policies may be integrated in their audit work.
EUROSAI entrusted the Task Force on Audit & Ethics to study and work on both these fields, with the main purpose of promoting the relevance of ethical conduct both in Supreme Audit Institutions and in public sector organisations.
In the period 2017-2021, the Task Force approachedg these goals through two main activity areas: “Support Implementation of ISSAI 130” and “Encourage SAIs to Promote Integrity in Public Sector”. Together, in a joint effort with the task force members and invited experts, we delivered relevant products to achieve those goals.
We trust that we have been useful and that we have added value to SAIs and their leadership and staff, as well as to the citizens they serve.
In April 2021, the XI EUROSAI Congress acknowledged the many relevant achievements of the TFA&E, encouraged EUROSAI members to take advantage of the guidance
produced by the group and thanked for the commitment of the TFA&E members in deliverering so many activities, under
the leadership of Tribunal de Contas of Portugal.
The Congress considered the activity of the EUROSAI TFA&E as closed, although deciding to keep the Audit&Ethics subject as a topic in the agenda
of EUROSAI. For that purpose, it established a EUROSAI Network for Ethics - «N.ET».
N.ET is in charge of managing an on line permanent platform that keeps SAIs
informed and collaborative in the topics of SAIs’ ethics
management and SAIs’ integrity awareness raising, ethics related
audit initiatives and anti-corruption role. The SAI of Croatia was entrusted with the responsibility of building and keeping the Network, with the support of the SAI of Portugal.
The N.ET platform was launched on 17 December 2021 and you can find it in here
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