Greenlines Newsletter

Happy 1999

Looking back upon a most successful year in which we had an excellent meeting in Peru, an interesting and useful OLACEFS’ course and - top of the bill - a very well received presentation in Uruguay, I would like to wish you all a very happy new year. I hope and expect that in the coming three years we will achieve even more. I would like to thank mister Victor Enrique Caso Lay and his staff once again for their excellent organisation of the meeting and the course and for their very generous hospitality. The visit to the Machu Pichu was an unforgettable experience for many! And by the way, my mother is as healthy as ever, going 92 (!) next moth. Thanks all of you for your kind interest in my family life !

Saskia J. Stuiveling

Next meeting in Cape Town

The next meeting of the INTOSAI Working Group will take place in Cape Town, South Africa. Mr. Kluever, Auditor General of the SAI of South Africa, has kindly invited the Working Group for the next meeting. The exact date has yet to be set, but will probably be in early April 2000. The chair thanks Mr. Kluever for his invitation. Mr. Fakie, Deputy Auditor General of the South African SAI, took already a keen interest in the well being of our Working Group.

INTOSAI Working Group on Environmental Auditing in Peru

Both the participation in the OLACEFS Course on November 3, and the 5th meeting of the Working Group on November 4 and 5, were very fruitful. As the participants indicated in the evaluation form, the general feeling was very positive. During the course, the participants heard several presentations on the achievements of the Working Group (general presentation on the Working Group, report second survey, paper on natural resource accounting, the homepage) and worked on a commission concerning the audit of international environmental treaties. The Working Group concluded that this kind of co-operation can be copied by other regions.

At the 5th meeting of the Working Group many decisions were taken. After two items had been added, the draft Work Plan was adopted. The added items were a preliminary study of environment and employment (co-ordinated by the European Court of Audit) and an international inventory of environmental treaties (by the Netherlands Court of Audit) which are suitable to be audited by SAIs from all over the world. At its next meeting the Working Group will decide for which treaties to make an audit proposal-model. Furthermore the draft "Guidance on conducting audits of activities with an environmental perspective", after some minor adjustments, has been accepted,. The planning is to have this document ready for submission as INTOSAI document at the 6th meeting of the Working Group in 2000.

Presentation of the INTOSAI Working Group on Environmental Auditing at the xvith INCOSAI

At the XVIth INCOSAI, held in Montevideo, Uruguay from November 7 till November 14, 1998, the Working Group on Environmental Auditing has presented its achievements during the period 1996 - 1998 and its strategy and work plan for the period 1999 - 2001. During two parallel sessions the participants were informed about the products that have been developed. There was a presentation of the homepage of the Working Group, on which all its products can be found. After an explanation of the strategy, the video ‘Green auditing: a global challenge’ was shown. All the participants of INCOSAI received a video in one of the INTOSAI-languages. After this, a video of the Audit Court of Peru followed, which reported on the co-operation with the SAI of Brazil focusing on the management of the Alexander von Humboldt Forest.

The Working Group thankfully made use of the excellent facilities and help of the organisation of the SAI of Uruguay. INCOSAI agreed with all the activities of the Working Group for the future. The Working Group hopes to present its results at the XVIIth INCOSAI in Seoul in 2001.

Interested SAIs can obtain the video ‘Green auditing: a global challenge’ at the Netherlands Court of Audit, provided that the requested version is in stock. Please mention in your request the desired INTOSAI language and the type of video (Pal, Pal-M, Pal-N, Secam, Secam BG or NTSC).

(INTOSAI Working Group on Environmental Auditing, mrs. Karin Gabor, P.O.Box 20015, 2500 EA The Hague, The Netherlands, Telephone: 31 70 3424157, Fax: 31 70 3424411,

E-mail:environmental.auditing@rekenkamer.nl).

New Members

Eight additional SAIs have applied for membership of the INTOSAI Working Group on Environmental Auditing. These are the SAIs of Iran, Indonesia, Jordan, Kuwait,and Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Paraguay and Zimbabwe. The chair welcomes these SAIs as members and looks forward to working together in the next period.

Strategy for co-operation with the regions

The draft strategy for co-operation with the regions which was accepted at the 5th meeting in Peru, has been approved by the INTOSAI community at the XVIth INCOSAI.

The strategy calls for choosing coördinators and start-up teams from members of the INTOSAI Working Group. Each start-up team will take the lead in establishing a regional working group on environmental auditing. For the regions OLACEFS, ARABOSAI, AFROSAI and EUROSAI there are already trekkers and start up teams. OLACEFS will also invite CAROSAI members to participate in their working group on environmental auditing and will work together with the working group on environmental auditing of OCEFS. For your convenience we present the following overview:

Workshop "trekkers" In June 1999

For the "trekkers" and the chairs of the regional working groups on environmental auditing The Netherlands Court of Audit will organise a workshop on the 17th and 18th of June 1999 in the Hague, the Netherlands. Please make a reservation in your agenda. You will receive more information on this workshop later on.

New on the homepage

New on the homepage <www.rekenkamer.nl/ea > are:

• the minutes of the 4th meeting of the working group in Estonia, 1997;
• the Green Lines Special; this edition of the Green Lines was distributed at the XVIth INCOSAI in Uruguay and concerned Working Group matters at the Congress;
• bibliography and countrydocuments, concerning information on more than 600 environmental audit reports, addresses of SAIs, as well as information on the mandate with respect to environmental auditing. Selections can be made by country, environmental issue and type of audit;
• speeches of the chair of the Working Group at the XVIth INCOSAI in Uruguay;
• the Work Plan 1999 - 2001, adjusted to the discussion at the 5th meeting.

Change of Representatives

SAI of Brazil

Mrs. Rosângela Paniago Curado Fleury will succeed Mr. Sergio Freitas de Almeida, as representative in the Working Group of the Brazilian SAI. Mrs. Rosangela Paniago Curado Fleury is head of the Genral External Control. The chair welcomes Mrs. Rosângela Paniago Curado Fleury and thanks Mr. Freitas de Almeida for contributing enthusiastically to the Working Group.

SAI of Egypt

Mr. Shawky Khater, president of the SAI of Egypt, will be the representative of the Egyptian SAI. The chair welcomes Mr. Khater and thanks former representative, Mr Khalil El Gazzar, for his contribution to the Working Group.

SAI of the United States of America

In Green Lines number 2 , July 1998, it was stated incorrectly that Mr. Brian Crowley has succeeded Mr. Dexter Peach as official representative in the Working Group. In fact Mr. Peter Guerrero is the succesor to Mr. Peach. The chair welcomes Mr. Peter Guerrero, who we all know from previous working group meetings, as an official member.

Change of Staff

the staff , supporting the chair of the Working Group, will change by January 1999. Mrs. Henny Hendriks and Mrs. Ali van der Tempel will leave the staff. Henny has accepted a job at the Municipality of the Hague, and Ali is going to perform other tasks within the SAI of the Netherlands. Mr. Peter van Roozendaal will succeed Ali as project manager and the staff will be extended by Mrs. Marlies Alberts and Mr. Floris Roijackers. Mrs. Karin Gabor and Mrs. Sylvia van Leeuwen will stay on as staff members.

The new or corrected e-mail addresses are marked with an *.

continuation e-mail list

Please let us know if the list is incorrect or incomplete.

Note: new members: please let us know your e-mail address; we will include it in the next number of the Green Lines.