On-line informationbulletin for the members of
the Intosai Working Group on Environmental Auditing

• Introduction
• New representatives
• Chair of the Working Group
• 7^th Meeting of the Working Group: Ottawa, September 2001
• Meeting of the regional Working Groups
• Preparation for the INCOSAI at Seoul, October 2001
• Materials to be included in the presentation of the Working Group

Information bulletin

for the members of the Intosai  Working Group on Environmental Auditing

Volume 5, Number 2, 4 July 2001

 Introduction

As you can see this is only the second Green Lines of this year. Please don't think that we at the Netherlands Court of Audit have lost our interest in this field and in the Working Group on Environmental Auditing. In fact, the opposite is the case. We are currently working so hard to complete all the discussion material for the 7^th meeting of our Working Group in Ottawa, Canada, and for the XVII INCOSAI in Seoul, Korea, that we simply forgot to write a new edition of Green Lines.

Now that there is a new Green Lines, you will not be surprised to find that most of the information deals with, indeed, the 7^th meeting of our Working Group and the XVII INCOSAI. Enclosed you find the final proposal for the agenda for the Working Group meeting in Ottawa, and an updated overview of what the Working Group will try to achieve in Seoul. Furthermore there is some information on the Chair of the Working Group after the INCOSAI and some new representatives in the Working Group.

I look forward to our next meeting in Ottawa and I hope to greet you all personally there!

Saskia J Stuiveling

New representatives

The SAI of Brazil has let us know that Mrs. Rosangela Paniagio Fleury, the former Secretary General of External Control of the SAI of Brazil, will be replaced as representative in our Working Group by the new Secretary General of External Control. His name is: Mr. Luciano Carlos Batista. He may be contacted at the following address:

General Secretariat of External Control - SEGECEX
Brazilian Court of Audit - Anexo I - Sala 418
Phone number: (**5561) 226 3935/316 7322
Fax number: (**5561) 316 7535
Email: lucianocb@tcu.gov.br

The GAO (the SAI of the USA) has let us know that Mr. Peter Guerrero will be replaced as its representative in the Working Group by Mr Dave Wood. Within the GAO a number of other persons can also be contacted for Environmental Auditing. Their names are: Mr. Steven Elstein and Mr. John Stephenson.

Finally, the Office of the Auditor General of Canada has appointed a new Commissioner for the Environment and Sustainable Development. Her name is Mrs. Johanne Gélinas, and she will be closely involved with the activities of the Working Group.

The Chair would like to take this opportunity to thank Mrs. Rosangela Paniagio Fleury and especially "veteran" Mr. Peter Guerrero for their activities for the Working Group. We wish their successors and Mrs Johanne Gélinas good luck, and look forward to greeting them at the next meeting of the Working Group.

Chair of the Working Group

As we all know the current mandate of the Intosai Working Group on Environmental Auditing ends at XVII INCOSAI in Seoul 2001. Although we will seek renewal of the mandate of the Working Group, the Netherlands Court of Audit has indicated at XVI INCOSAI in Montevideo 1998 that it will not seek a renewal of its mandate as Chair of the Working Group after Seoul 2001.

During the year 2000, the Chair initiated a number of discussions with Working Group members that might be interested in taking over the position of Chair of the INTOSAI Working Group on Environmental Auditing. By the end of 2000, a letter was sent out to the (now former) Auditor General of the SAI of Canada, Mr. Denis Desautels. In this letter he was asked whether the SAI of Canada would be interested in taking over the Chairmanship of the INTOSAI Working Group on Environmental Auditing. Mr. Desautels answered positively and stated that it would be a good idea to discuss the matter together. During January 2001, Mrs. Stuiveling and Mr. Desautels met in Washington DC, USA. There it was agreed that during the period 2002-2004, the SAI of Canada would take over the Chairmanship of the INTOSAI Working Group on Environmental Auditing. In April 2001 another meeting took place at our office in The Hague, The Netherlands, this time with Mrs. Johanne Gélinas, the new Commissioner for the Environment and Sustainable Development of the Office of the Auditor General of Canada. In that meeting further details were discussed. The following was agreed upon:

• After approval by the members of the INTOSAI Working Group on Environmental Auditing, the Netherlands Court of Audit will resign as solo-Chair of the Working Group the end of the third period. The SAI of Canada will join the Chair and both SAIs will act as co-Chair and prepare transition in the first part of the period 2002-2004;

• At the 8th meeting of the Working Group (early 2003) the Netherlands Court of Audit will step down as Chair but will of course stay on as a regular member of the Working Group and subco-ordinator for the western European region in the EUROSAI Working Group on Environmental Auditing;

• The SAI of Canada will fully take over the Chair position on the way to XVIII INCOSAI in Budapest 2004.

7^th Meeting of the Working Group: Ottawa, September 2001

Place and time of the meeting

The 7th meeting of our Working Group will be held from 23 – 26 September 2001, in Ottawa, Canada. The meeting will be hosted by the Office of the Auditor General of Canada. The venue of the meeting is the Hotel Chateau Laurier in Ottawa:

The Chateau Laurier
1 Rideau Street
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
K1N 8S7
Telephone:       1-613-241-1414 or 1-800-441-1414
Fax:                 1-613-562-7031

The meeting will be organized by Mr. Wayne Cluskey and Mrs. Hélène Richard of the Office of the Auditor General of Canada. Ms. Hélène Richard is the Event Co-ordinator and will be available to assist you regarding room reservations, places to visit in Ottawa, social events, schedule changes, typing, faxing, photocopying, etc. Any enquiries or requests for additional information can be addressed directly to her.

Hélène can be contacted at

Tel: 1-613-995-3708
Fax : 1-613-941-8286 or by e-mail:  richarh@oag-bvg.gc.ca

Wayne Cluskey, the representative of the SAI of Canada in our Working Group, can be contacted at the same telephone and fax number or by e-mail : cluskewj@oag-bvg.gc.ca.

The Chair urges all Working Group members to complete the registration forms for the meeting and the Hotel as soon as possible, and send them to Hélène for the registration of the meeting, and directly to the Hotel for the room reservation.

Circulation of documents preceding the meeting

In preparation of the meeting, the following documents have circulated among the Working Group members:

• draft minutes of the Working Group meeting in Cape Town;

•  Booklet of Posters presented in Cape Town;

• draft INTOSAI booklet "Guidance ...";

• draft Working Group document "Sustainable development";

• draft Working Group document "The audit of International Environmental Accords"

• draft Working Group document "Results of the third survey on Environmental Auditing";

• draft Discussion Paper ("Five Pages") for the 48th meeting of the Governing Board at XVII INCOSAI in which the past achievements and future plans for the Working Group are summed up.

 Before the meeting, we would like to consult you on:

• draft Work Plan 2002-2004 for the Working Group on Environmental Auditing.

We aim at completing the Ottawa documentation by the end of July or early August. We will then send out the documentation to all Working Group members that have at that time registered for the meeting in Ottawa.

Meeting of the regional Working Groups

As we reported in the previous Green Lines, the Chair of the EUROSAI Working Group on Environmental Auditing, the SAI of Poland, has expressed the wish to have a separate meeting with the members of the EUROSAI Working Group that will be present in Canada. In the programme for the Ottawa meeting, some time is available for this 'contact' meeting on  Monday morning the 24^th of September between 9.00 and 13.00 hours (see below). If other regional Working Groups are interested in such a meeting, please inform us and the organisation at the SAI of Canada about your plans.

Agenda for the meeting of September 2001

The final agenda for the 7th meeting of the INTOSAI Working Group on Environmental Auditing will be decided upon during the meeting. The Chair would like to propose the following agenda. 

Preparation for the INCOSAI at Seoul, October 2001

Presentation of the Working Group

We informed you in the previous Green Lines that at the INCOSAI only 10 minutes are available for Environmental Auditing during the first plenary meeting of the Congress. During the past half-year we have been in close contact with the organisation committee of the INCOSAI at the SAI of Korea. The organisation committee immediately understood our problem and has been very co-operative in finding a solution together with us. 

During the first three days of the INCOSAI, a separate conference room (the "Moderato" room) will be available for our Working Group for most of the time. We have decided to use the time and space made available to us for an exposition on environmental auditing and the activities of the Working Group.

One of the things we have done so far to organise the exposition, is to ask a number of SAIs to prepare some posters (more or less equivalent to the posters that were presented at our Cape Town meeting). For more information on this, you can contact Mrs. Sylvia van Leeuwen of the Netherlands Court of Audit.

Materials to be included in the presentation of the Working Group

A number of documents will be used in the exposition of the Working Group at XVII INCOSAI in Seoul. First of all, of course, the new INTOSAI Booklet "Guidance on conducting audits of activities with an environmental perspective" prepared mostly by the SAI of New Zealand. We are very grateful that the SAI of New Zealand devoted so much time and energy to developing this important document. We are also very grateful to the SAI of the UK, the NAO, for developing the Working Group document "Sustainable development" which will also be included in the presentation. Two other documents that will be used are the Working Group documents "The Audit of International Environmental Accords" and " Results of the Third Questionnaire on Environmental Auditing". The Netherlands Court of Audit wrote both.

We aim at presenting the following information package at XVII INCOSAI:

1- Instead of Former President Dr. Rafael Hernán Contreras make changes so
Ing. José Rutilio Aguilera Carreras, current President appears. The mail
address is cdcr@es.com.sv.
2- Delete the information corresponding to Mr. Mauricio Machón because he
does not work here anymore.