EUROSAI. Magazine N18 - 2012

EUROPEAN ORGANISATION OF SUPREME AUDIT INSTITUTIONS www.eurosai.org No. 18 - 2012 Editorial > 5 < Dear colleagues, True to its annual date, the EUROSAI Magazine once more offers us a suitable framework for the communication and sharing of experiences among both members and non-members of the Organisation. This occasion is the first in which I have had the opportunity to use this vehicle of communication for addressing you all as Secretary General of EUROSAI, after my appointment as President of the Spanish Court of Audit last year. I would first of all like to take the opportunity to express my most sincere acknowledgement and my profound gratitude to Manuel Núñez Pérez, the previous Secretary General of EUROSAI and President of the Spanish Court of Audit, for his untiring work at the head of the Secretariat over the past four years. His initiatives, his willingness and his dedication to the Organisation represent a model when it comes to taking over as Secretary General. I would also like to make special mention of María José de la Fuente y de la Calle for her invaluable dedication, both professional and personal, to the Secretariat up to 2012 . Over the past 10 years she has shown an unsurpassable level of commitment and effort to the Organisation, thereby contributing to the proper functioning of EUROSAI. We in the Secretariat thank her for her valuable work and we wish her every success in the new tasks and responsibilities facing her as Member of the Court of Audit. In 2012 the Goal Teams set up by the Strategic Plan 2011 - 2017 approved in the VIII EUROSAI Congress have carried out intense activity, holding various plenary meetings in order to make firm progress in the effective implementation of that Plan and in attaining the Strategic Objectives defined in it, and we can already see the splendid result obtained as the outcome of that effort. Likewise, the various working groups and taskforces of EUROSAI have also made solid progress in the implementation of the work programmes for 2011 - 2014 , which were presented to the VIII Congress, tackling the continuation or completion of activities in progress and starting up new initiatives. During the past year EUROSAI has continued to intensify cooperation and sharing of experiences with other Regional Groups of INTOSAI with which solid ties exist, especially via the VII EUROSAI-OLACEFS Conference held in Tiflis (Georgia) in September under the theme “Good governance in the public sector: Role of the SAI”. In the year which we are now starting, this path of international cooperation is going to be furthered by means of holding the IV EUROSAI-ARABOSAI Conference, which will be taking place in Azerbaijan in April 2013 and will be focusing on the main theme “Modern Challenges for SAIs’ Capacity Building”. This year, the main theme chosen for the “Reports and Studies” Section of the Magazine has been “The strengthening of external public control: guarantee for financial sustainability and good governance”. I consider this to be a subject of great and topical interest, constituting a preoccupation and challenge for the Institutions of external control, both within the framework of our Organisation and within that of INTOSAI, and that it will undoubtedly be present in the debates that are going to be generated around the themes which will be discussed during the the XXI INCOSAI, due to take place in Beijing in October 2013 . I would not wish to end without expressing the willingness of this EUROSAI Secretariat to make itself available to all its members, and also special gratitude to those who have collaborated with their contributions to this issue of the Magazine, making its publication possible. I also want to offer this meeting place to all those wishing to contribute to this joint project, enabling it to act as a vehicle for information and sharing of experiences among the members of our Organisation. n Ramón Álvarez de Miranda President of the Spanish Court of Audit Secretary General of EUROSAI Editorial