At the opening conference of the fourth International Integrity Seminar in Budapest, Shourjo Chatterjee, Strategy and Knowledge Manager of the INTOSAI Development Initiative presented the three main elements of IDI’s programme supporting the fight against corruption, which are: leading by example in the ethical operation, the fight against corruption to be included in audit methodologies and knowledge sharing. He reminded that the Hungarian support played a huge role in the launching of IDI’s programme to strengthen accountability and the fight against corruption.
On the occasion of an international conference held at the Headquarters of the State Audit Office of Hungary, on 22 February 2016, it was announced that the Government of Hungary concluded a donorship agreement with the INTOSAI Development Initiative (IDI) upon the initiative of the State Audit Office of Hungary to support the global fight against corruption. The support provided thanks to the SAO contributes to the overall budget of the program which is being funded by several other donors, as well. The amounts are being utilised over the 2016-2018 period. The overall budget for the programme for these three years amounts to USD 800,000. So the Hungarian support makes up more than the half of the program.
In his speech Mr. Chatterjee showed that the IDI’s Capacity Development Programme consists of 3 components that can be used by supreme audit institutions in the fight against corruption: implementing ISSAI 30, the audit of institutional frameworks for fighting corruption, and the SAI-Stakeholder platform.
The first component is the audit of institutional frameworks for fighting corruption which supports SAIs in conducting a performance audit. Mr. Chatterjee also emphasised that since SAIs make a huge effort at examining public systems for fighting corruption, they have to lead by example. This is where ISSAI 30 – or in other words the auditors’ code of ethics – comes into the picture. Due to national differences of culture, language, and legal and social systems, it is the responsibility of each SAI to develop its own Code of Ethics, which best fits its own environment. However, the adaptation of ISSAI 30 is an absolute prerequisite for the functioning of Supreme Audit Institutions.
The third component is supporting the SAIs and setting up a stakeholder platform for fighting corruption at the country level where the SAI and other agencies which are involved in the fight against corruption in the spheres of prevention, detection as well as sanctioning.
The first and second component of the program (ISSAI 30 self assessment and Performance Audit of the Institutional Framework for Fighting Corruption) is being conducted during 2017-2018 while support for the stakeholder platform is planned to be provided in 2019.
Dániel Hochbaum
Enikő Czinder
Department of Communication and Public Relations
