Opening Ceremony of XXIX OLACEFS General Assembly

The opening ceremony of OLACEFS- 29 

The annual meetings of the OLACEFS in recent years concentrated on discussing topics and finding solutions for regional issues of common concern such as: To strengthen performance audit in evaluating sustainable development goals; To use big data in performing audit functions; To enhance integrity in public procurement through coordination and control mechanisms between procurement system and state audit institution; To control state owned enterprises and public and private partners. The Buenos Aires Declaration adopted at the 28th OLACEFS General Assembly affirmed the role of SAIs in the century of new technologies and commitment to the application of new technologies in public sector financial management.

At the 29th OLACEFS General Assembly, the integrity and importance of new technologies in auditing activities were further affirmed through the two main themes “Application and legal validity of electronic signatures and electronic documents in the audit process” and “Improvement of institutional integrity management – relevance in SAIs and in the public sector”. 

SAV’s delegates participates in OLACEFS 29

During the first plenary session, SAI Ecuador presided over the discussion on the application and legal validity of electronic signatures and electronic documents in the audit process. Accordingly, most of SAIs identified that among information technology applications, the electronic signatures and documents play an important role in the implementation of administrative and auditing activities. However, these applications have not been systematically conducted in most member SAIs.

Currently, several OLACEFS members have applied electronic signatures and documents in practice and some of the remaining ones are considering the implementation of this technology. The expected goal is to have an electronic signature system which strictly adhere to the principles of technological neutrality and functional equivalence. The technological neutrality complies with the Principle 43 of UNCITRAL “Legislation shall not impose the use of or otherwise favour any specific technology”. The functional equivalence is in accordance with the Principle 5 of UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Commerce “Information shall not be denied legal effect, validity or enforce-ability solely on the grounds that it is not contained in the data message supporting to give rise to such legal effect, but is merely referred to in that data message”. The application of new technology to the audit process will make the internal control system more flexible and comprehensive.  However, SAIs need to handle with the risks of integrating management levels into the new technology process.

 SAV’s delegates participates in OLACEFS 29

After the opening session, Deputy Auditor General Doan Xuan Tien and SAV’s delegates began the meeting with the President of the Court of Accounts of El Salvador and the Comptroller General of the Republic of Cuba. 

On October 17, the General Assembly continued the plenary session on the second theme “Improvement of institutional integrity management – relevance in SAIs and in the public sector”. As the host, SAI El Salvador was responsible for presenting the report on “Public integrity as a mechanism for strengthening the fight against corruption”.

In this session, the SAV provided the speech on “The role of SAV in detecting errors and preventing corruption”. The General Assembly ended on 18 October 2019 after the discussion on the matters of organization and internal management of OLACEFS.

LÊ THU (dịch)