On the sidelines of his participation in the meeting of the heads of the GCC SAIs in Doha.
Doha – The National Audit Office:
His Excellency Sheikh Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Khalifa, Auditor General of the National Audit Office (NAO), emphasized the importance of training employees working in the audit sector, enhancing their capabilities and familiarizing them with the latest developments in this field, especially those related to information technology, digital transformation and artificial intelligence.
His Excellency pointed to the possibility of raising the level of cooperation and coordination between the Gulf Supreme Audit Institutions in this regard and unifying and combining efforts to upgrade the level of the profession and the capabilities of its workers by taking advantage of local capabilities, in addition to what is provided by the specialized international organizations, especially “INTOSAI” and the institutions under its umbrella.
His Excellency said on the sidelines of his participation in the 21st meeting of the Heads of the Supreme Audit Institutions of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which was held in Doha, and was attended by H.E. Secretary General of the Gulf Cooperation Council Mr. Jasem Mohamed AlBudaiwi, that the digital and technological transformation the world is witnessing in various fields has made development and keeping pace with modernization an urgent necessity.
The meeting endorsed the recommendations of Their Excellencies the Undersecretaries of the GCC SAIs at their 25th meeting held on 10th of September, on listing the results and recommendations of the winning research in the GCC Research and Studies Competition in the field of Auditing and Accounting, while selecting the distinguished recommendations, with the possibility of studying the feasibility of applying them and developing proposals for their implementation in the form of legislation, laws, practices, seminars, training workshops, or projects.
H.E. also agreed to organize a youth forum within the scope of the GCC SAIs, and that the participating delegations from each SAI should include a youth participant, with the possibility of including them in the team preparing the recommendations emanating from the symposium, with the aim of professional advancement and keeping pace with information development by qualifying a promising and knowledgeable young generation.
Their Excellencies the Heads of SAIs approved a draft study on the reality of the guides issued by the Working Group on Audit Rules for SAIs and the extent of their utilization and future development, in addition to the drafts of the updated Financial Audit Guide (General Guide) and the Audit Guide on Disaster and Crisis Management.
In addition, to enhance cooperation and partnership with the INTOSAI Development Initiative (IDI) in order to develop the skills of employees in GCC SAIs, Their Excellencies the Heads of GCC SAIs tasked the GCC General Secretariat to coordinate with the initiative to organize a visit to its headquarters early next month, and circulate the invitation to the SAIs to nominate specialists in the field of training and developing the capabilities of employees.
The meeting also approved the theme of the third GCC symposium “Adopting Modern Technologies in Audit Work”, and the review and update of the procedures manuals for implementing training programs, seminars and conferences for the GCC SAIs as part of the implementation of a new initiative within the next strategic plan.
Their Excellencies the Heads of SAIs were briefed on the training programs that have been implemented in 2024 as part of the 2024-2025 training plan prepared by the National Audit Office (NAO) of the Kingdom of Bahrain, as well as the signing of memorandums of understanding with the INTOSAI Development Initiative (IDI) and King Fahd National Library.
Furthermore, Their Excellencies Heads of SAIs decided to assign the Working Group of Audit Rules to study the proposal (Governance of the Audit Mechanism of the General Secretariat of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf), which was submitted by the Emirates Audit Authority within the proposal to enhance regulatory cooperation within the framework of the Cooperation Council, provided that the results of the study reached by the team will be submitted to the next Undersecretaries' meeting.
The meeting was attended by H.E. the Auditor General of the National Audit Office (NAO) of the Kingdom of Bahrain, Head of the Bahrain delegation, and other representatives from the NAO, Mr. Mohamed Isa AlAradi, Audit Manager at the Administrative Audit, and Mr. Mohamed Fuad Sater, Manager of the Audit-General Office.
