Manama – The National Audit Office:
Within the framework of developing and enhancing the capabilities of employees in specialized technical fields, reviewing best practices, and staying up-to-date with relevant developments in those fields, the NAO participated in a number of training programs and international seminars on environment to add value to its audit work output.
The training programs, seminars and workshops were organized by reputable international bodies such as the United Nations, the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI), the World Bank, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the Supreme Audit Institution (SAI) of the People's Republic of China, the National Audit Office of the Republic of Estonia, the University of Tartu in Estonia and others.
The seminars discussed the role of SAIs in the field of environment, sustainable development and climate action, the effects of auditing work in those areas, and identifying risks and growth opportunities while giving participants the chance to exchange experiences.
As part of the international training on environment, Karima Alshaikh, Audit Manager at the Administrative Audit Directorate, attended the 26th United Nations/INTOSAI Symposium on "Implementing Sustainable Development Goal 13 on Climate Action: Role, Contribution and Experiences of Supreme Audit Institutions", which was held in Vienna, Austria.
The seminar discussed topics such as the practices of SAIs in monitoring the impact of climate change, creating appropriate conditions for climate action audits, promoting climate action and the effects of audits on climate change.
Mohamed Alaradi, Audit Manager at the Administrative Audit Directorate and member of the Investigative Audit Team, took part in the regional conference on "Managing Climate-Smart Public Finance in the MENA Region", which was held in Cairo, Egypt, and which discussed the practical implementation of countries' climate goals, green goals in the budget process and other important components of the public financial management system.
The main themes of the conference were assisting finance professionals in the region to deepen understanding of climate risks and opportunities for green growth across government agencies and the wider public sector, integrating climate and green goals into key processes and decision-making, mainstreaming climate and green goals into public financial management, and facilitating the exchange of professional experiences and knowledge transfer among public finance practitioners across the region.
In addition, the event touched upon relevant international experiences related to climate action and green growth, strengthening the capacity of government stakeholders to design and implement public financial management reforms to achieve tangible development results, supporting country-level efforts, facilitating cooperation among countries in the region on climate change mitigation and adaptation and applying international and regional best practices in integrating climate change objectives into public financial management through joint activities.
A group of NAO employees participated via video conference in the SAI SCO seminar on Environmental Auditing of SAIs which was organized by the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the SAI of China.
Participants learnt about the experience of SAI China in environmental auditing and the exchange of experiences between SAIs in this field.
Another group of NAO employees attended a webinar on "Environmental Auditing in the Public Sector" organized by the National Audit Office of the Republic of Estonia and the University of Tartu of Estonia, which reviewed the main environmental management principles, discussed the importance and complexity of the concept of sustainable development and introduced the most common governance tools used in environmental management based on practical environmental auditing.
