Between 27 February and 3 March 2017 the 4th international anti-corruption seminar takes place in organization of the State Audit Office of Hungary. The five-day professional event is aiming at the dissemination of integrity based administrative culture and development of transparent government operation in the respective - particularly developing - countries through sharing best national and international practices. In advance nearly twenty-five SAIs, mostly from Asian, African and South-East European countries registered but the Hungarian SAO expects participants even SAIs of South America.
The very first International Integrity Seminar of the SAO was held in 2014 with the aim of disseminating integrity approach among SAIs of developing countries or countries under democratic transition. In 2015 twenty-five experts of fifteen countries took part in the five-day seminar, while in 2016 an outstanding number of participants more than thirty expert from 22 countries represented SAIs from all over the world.
The interest towards the knowledge-sharing program of the SAO increased year by year, which is also proved by that during the this year’s Integrity Seminar a rise is expected in the number of participants, in advance more than forty auditor specialist indicated their participation from about twenty-five countries. The 4th Seminar is launched by an Opening Conference on February 27 in Budapest, at which presentations will be held by experts of the OECD, the INTOSAI and EUROSAI. The professional program carries on during the whole week until 3 March and it explores how the results of the integrity survey can be utilized in the work of the management.
During the Integrity Seminar participants learn about the "Hungarian model" of fight against corruption, the integrity survey methodology of the SAO through theoretical and practical training. As well as the experts gain insight into the communication activities of the SAO and is facilitated to acquire innovative communication tools that effectively contribute to the improvement of public financial transparency, thus consolidating integrity based administrative culture in their countries. Detailed summaries of the 2015 and 2016 events can be reached here.
A seven-member delegation of the SAI of Vietnam take part at the Opening Conference in Budapest on 27 February, which arrive to Hungary for a bilateral discussion in the context of the cooperation agreement between the two SAIs. The professional visit focuses on topics of the cooperation agreement in particular the topic of budget planning and execution. The Head of SAIs of Vietnam and Hungary had their previous bilateral meeting in Hanoi in January 2013, where in addition to knowledge-sharing of audit experience the cooperation agreement was renewed between the two SAIs.
Enikő Czinder
Department of Communication and Public Relations
