On-line Information bulletin for the members of
the
Intosai Working Group on Environmental Auditing
Volume 4, Number 2, 5 June 2000
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On-line Information bulletin for the members of Volume 4, Number 2, 5 June 2000 |
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After the 6th meeting of the INTOSAI Working Group on
Environmental Auditing in Dear colleagues,When I returned to the Netherlands after our meeting in Cape Town, it was immediately back to the "normal" activities of the Netherlands Court of Audit. My main activity was to publish the results of our annual regularity audits of all ministries. This took place on the 17th of May. This year it was a special occasion for me and for the Netherlands Court of Audit as a whole, because for the first time in the history of the our Court of Audit I was invited by the President of the Lower House to present the results directly in parliament. The minister of Finance submitted the "Government Accounts1999" and I submitted our report on those Accounts. The Lower House has plans to make the third Wednesday of May from now on the "Accounts Day". So the 21st century started well for us. During my activities, however, often my thoughts went back to our very successful meeting in Cape Town. It was the biggest meeting of our Working Group so far, with 37 delegates from 22 SAI's attending. As intended, the meeting proved to be an important point in time for the further implementation of our strategy of regionalisation. I think the meeting has also been successful in laying out the path toward the XVIIth INCOSAI meeting, which will be held next year in Seoul, Republic of Korea. A number of issues still have to be resolved, but in general I think we are firmly 'en route' to Seoul. I would like to take this opportunity to again thank the Office of the Auditor General of South Africa, Mr. Fakie, for their hospitality, and for their fantastic organisation of the meeting! In this Green Lines we will look back and look forward at the same time. We will look back to the highlights of the meeting in Cape Town, and we will look forward to a number of activities that will be undertaken in the near future .Saskia
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Results of the meeting in Cape Town The agenda for the meeting was extensive, but we succeeded in discussing all issues: the results of the regionalisation process for each of the regions, the draft INTOSAI booklet "Guidance on conducting audits of activities with an environmental perspective", the discussion paper on "Sustainable development", the draft discussion paper "International Environmental Accords to Audit", the presentation of the Working Group at the XVIIth INCOSAI and the organisational shape of the Working Group after 2001. Apart from these issues to discuss, there was also an environmental excursion during the meeting and, of course, the Poster Session. The Working Group took the following decisions:
There
are three areas where the Chair expects some input from all Working Group
members:- Sustainable development: All members can send examples to be
included in the paper by email to Joe Cavanagh (NAO) before 1 July, 2000;-
International Environmental Accords: More SAIs are needed to make an audit
proposal. Also, SAIs that have already carried out audits of international
environmental accords are requested to send their audit proposal or
planning document to Mr. Floris Roijackers (Secretariat);- Presentation in
Seoul: We are looking for volunteers to make translations into French and
German. Report on Environmental Auditing to the INTOSAI Governing Board As you
know, in the week of 22 May 2000, a meeting of the INTOSAI Governing Board
was held in Seoul, Republic of Korea. At the meeting Mr. Pieter
Zevenbergen, member of the Board of the Netherlands Court of Audit,
reported on the most important activities of our Working Group during the
last year. When writing this report, Mr. Zevenbergen had just returned
from Seoul. He informed us that our proposals to the INTOSAI Governing
Board, i.e. to present the draft booklet Booklet "Guidance on conducting
audits of activities with and Environmental perspective" as an INTOSAI
document, and our presentation for the INCOSAI Seoul next year, have been
accepted. So far so good! During the summer period, we will contact you by sending you the following documents that were developed directly after the meeting in Cape Town:
We would like to ask you to look at these documents carefully, and then reply to us with your remarks and/or questions as soon as possible. That will ensure that we will be able to process all the information in time. Furthermore, we are preparing a little booklet that includes an overview of the Posters that were presented at the Cape Town meeting. We will send this booklet to all our members. It will provide you with a handy overview on the mandate of the member SAIs with respect to Environmental Auditing, and an indication of the activities all of us are undertaking right now! Under construction: the Website of the Working Group The
secretariat is currently in the process of revising the website of the
Working Group on Environmental Auditing on www.rekenkamer.nl/ea The work on
the new website will be carried out throughout the summer period. All the
documents that are related to the meeting in Cape Town will be placed on
the "old" website. It will stay "on the air" during this period, but will
not be updated anymore until the new website is launched. This should
happen at some time after the summer period. We will keep you informed.
Third Questionnaire on Environmental Auditing Some
time ago the third questionnaire on environmental auditing was sent out to
all INTOSAI members. The final date to submit the results was set at 1
June 2000. So far, however, we received only a fraction of the
questionnaires back. If you have not yet submitted the results, we kindly
request that you do so as soon as possible. This is of course especially
the case for Working Group members! Reminder: how to stay informed on Environmental Accords In the previous Green Lines we gave an overview of websites that could be useful if you want to stay informed on international environmental accords. As a reminder, we list some of the interesting addresses on the web:
The
Netherlands Court of Audit has organized an exhibition of the
environmental auditing posters that were discussed during the Poster
Session in Cape Town. The exhibition has ended now. If a SAI is also
interested in using the posters for an exhibition in their own
institution, please let us know, and we will send the posters to
you! List of delegates and SAIs attending the meeting
E-mail addresses of representatives, 12 April, 2000
Homepage-addresses of SAIs attending the meeting
* The
list is not complete. It is our intention to present a complete list of
all websites in the next Green Lines
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