EUROSAI. Magazine N18 - 2012

REPORTS AND STUDIES EUROPEAN ORGANISATION OF SUPREME AUDIT INSTITUTIONS www.eurosai.org No. 18 - 2012 > 67 < I. Context The VIII EUROSAI Congress, held in Lisboa in June 2011 , in its final Conclusions and Recommendations, on the theme Challenges, demands and responsibilities of public managers and the role of Supreme Audit Institutions , stated that “ Within the framework of the EUROSAI Strategic Plan adopted by this Congress, EUROSAI build upon this theme, via a structured dialogue or any other adequate form of joint efforts, such as a taskforce, in order to be able to meet the challenges of change and share the results with the wider INTOSAI community. Mutual experience benefits all.” Considering this recommendation, and upon one of the strategies of the Portuguese presidency, the EUROSAI Governing Board agreed to set up a Task Force to deal with Audit & Ethics, aiming primarily to promote ethical conduct and integrity, both in SAIs and in public organisations. This approachmeets challenges that have been increasing in a period of a wide financial and economic crisis, which has been causing growing difficulties for citizens. It is generally agreed that the roots of the problem lie on failures of regulation and also on values’ breakdowns. These assumptions, in times of uncertainty and need to recall the basic principles, enhance the opportunity and the advantages of exploring and consolidating this theme. A meaningful number of European Supreme Audit Institutions decided to participate in this Task Force, which, at the moment, is composed by the following SAIs: • Tribunal de Contas , Portugal (Chair). • Dr˘zavni ured za reviziju , Croatia. • Κυπριακη′ς Δημοκρατι′ας , Cyprus. • European Court of Auditors , European Union. • Cour des comptes , France. • Állami Számvevo˝szék, Hungary. • Ríkisendurskod˜un , Iceland. • Dr ;fdt n zavo ∂ za rev υ z υ ©f , former yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia. • Algemene Rekenkammer , The Netherlands. • Curtea di Conturi , Romania. • Racunsko Sodisc e, Slovenia. • Tribunal de Cuentas , Spain. Albania has already shown its interest in participating in the TF, so we are gladly expecting that soon the SAI of this country will join our efforts. Other SAIs from Europe are also welcome to join us. 2 . Kick-Off Meeting The Task Force on Audit & Ethics (TF), under the chairmanship of Tribunal de Contas of Portugal, held its 1 st meeting ( 7 - 8 May), in Lisbon, aiming to share experiences and practices and, most of all, to prepare its working plan, detailing the objectives, priorities and tasks and their schedule and responsible SAIs. It was a fruitful meeting, almost like a small seminar, due to the relevant and interesting presentations there done. • Ethics and mitigation of conflicts of interests in the French “Cour des Comptes”. • The Code of Ethics of the Romanian Court of Accounts. • Ethical tools used in the Croatian State Audit Office. • The experience of the European Court of Auditors. Task Force on Audit & Ethics The SAI of Portugal n Ethics is about making conscious choices in line with a framework of values and principles. n