EUROSAI. Magazine N21 - 2015

EUROPEAN ORGANISATION OF SUPREME AUDIT INSTITUTIONS ISSAI SPOTLIGHT 46 www.eurosai.org · N.º 21 - 2015 1. Why does INTOSAI need a Code of Ethics? Ethical behaviour is a key component in establishing the needed trust and reputation that a Supreme Audit Institution (SAI) must inspire in its stakeholders. A code of ethics is a crucial element to provide organisations and individuals working for them with a set of values and principles on which to base behaviour. The specific environment and objectives of public sector auditing are often different from those of a private sector audit organisation. SAIs have a legal/statutory mandate, they work mainly for parliaments and citizens rather than for clients, they work close to executive and legislative political bodies, their role is to report publicly on their findings and they are part of a transparent public governance system. Thus, specific ethical risks arise, such as political pressure, nepotism, misuse of power, or dilemmas between confidentiality and disclosure, and safeguards to these threats need to consider that neither individuals nor SAIs can refuse or withdraw from audit tasks. In this context, INTOSAI decided to have its own Code of Ethics. This Code, later included in the ISSAI framework as ISSAI 30, was adopted by the XVI INTOSAI Congress in Montevideo in 1998. 2. Revision of ISSAI 30 In 2013, in accordance with the ISSAI maintenance schedule, the Steering Committee of the INTOSAI Professional Standards Committee (PSC) decided to conduct an assessment of whether the extant ISSAI 30 needed to be revised, in order to ensure its relevance in the current public sector auditing environment. For this purpose, the ISSAI 30 Review Team was established, composed of the SAIs of Indonesia, Poland (project leader), Portugal, the United Kingdom and the United States. To determine whether the Code of Ethics needed a revision, input was sought from the whole INTOSAI community, through an online survey distributed in February 2014. According to the respondents, ISSAI 30 needed a revision that should focus on, among others, shifting from the perspective of an individual auditor to the SAI perspective, with due consideration to stakeholders; emphasising the importance of ethical culture; reviewing fundamental principles and core values; considering monitoring compliance with ethical requirements, and including ethics REVISION OF ISSAI 30 The SAI of Poland The SAI of Portugal The specific environment and objectives of public sector auditing are often different from those of a private sector audit organisation