Employees from the NAO attended a series of international webinars, which discussed technological innovation, Internal Audit, retaining audit staff, preserving expertise and competencies, and empowering women in public financial institutions.
Around 11 employees participated in an on-line panel with the US Government Accounting Office (GAO) Innovation Lab on how to set-up technological innovation. The workshop was organized by the Supreme Audit Institutions (SAI) Innovations Team of the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions Development Initiative (IDI).
The panel focused on the Innovation Lab’s implementation strategy and lessons learned to help shape the future of auditing. Examples of quick and easy improvements, strategic efforts and the systemic initiatives the Innovation Lab is concurrently tackling were shared.
Another 9 NAO staff members took part in a webinar on “Enterprise-wide Audit Processing and Knowledge Management IT system” held by the INTOSAI Working Group on Information Technology Audit (WGITA).
In addition, the NAO joined a webinar organized by INTOSAI which discussed retaining audit staff based on case studies from other SAIs and how to preserve practical experiences and competencies.
Furthermore, the NAO took part in a virtual panel discussion on "Promoting Women Leaders in Public Financial Institutions", organized by the INTOSAI Development Initiative (IDI), UN Women (UN Women), and the International Budget Partnership (IBP).
The panel included, amongst others, high-level participants from ministries of finance and SAIs and discussed the obstacles and challenges that women face in public financial institutions and the steps that must be taken to enable greater gender parity in the leadership of these institutions.
The International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI), of which Bahrain is a member, is an independent, non-political organization established to provide support to Supreme Audit Institutions and enhance cooperation between them; foster the exchange of ideas, knowledge, experiences and expertise as well as provide high quality international auditing standards for the public sector. INTOSAI was founded in 1953 and has 195 members.
