Specialized Programs, Seminars and Workshops.
The National Audit Office (NAO) has engaged a group of its employees in training programs, forums and workshops related to the field of "Institutional Capacity Assessment", with the aim of enhancing their capabilities, raising their skills in specialized fields, and familiarizing them with the best and latest relevant international practices.
These programs and seminars were organized by reputable international organizations and institutions in coordination with some SAIs, such as the Arabic Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (ARABOSAI), the Group of Supreme Audit Institutions of African Countries (AFROSAI), the General Secretariat of the Cooperation Council for the Arabic States of the Gulf, the INTOSAI Development Initiative (IDI), the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) and the Sustainable Development Goals Oversight Committee and others.
The programs, in which employees from different job levels and NAO departments participated, included a workshop organized by the INTOSAI IDI Development Initiative in the Republic of Tunisia, which discussed new developments related to the SAI PMF and some related aspects such as quality management, analysis, report writing, evaluation and introduction to new tools.
It also included a training program on "Evaluating the Performance of Strategic Plans" organized by the State Audit Institution in the Sultanate of Oman in Salalah, aimed at training participants on preparing strategic and operational plans and providing them with the necessary knowledge to prepare, plan, examine plans and the ability to carry out audit tasks on their performance, in addition to familiarizing them with national strategies in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries.
The employees also participated in a webinar on assessing institutional capacities in the Arabic region, held by the Arabic Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (ARABOSAI), the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) and the Monitoring Committee on Sustainable Development Goals, which introduced participants to Goal 16, its associated targets and the roles of SAIs in achieving them.
Participants discussed the importance of assessing institutional capacities, identifying the challenges associated with them and their specificities in the Arabic region, identifying and discussing ESCWA's methodology in this subject based on the experiences of the participating agencies, as well as identifying international best practices and the experiences of member SAIs in this field.
In addition, a group of NAO employees attended the eighteenth AFROSAI Technical Forum for Technology “MOVE 2023”, which was held virtually and called on SAIs and stakeholders to explore development possibilities, whether in the field of technology, auditing techniques, institutional structures or personal capacity development.
Furthermore, employees from the NAO participated in a training program on the Supreme Audit Institutions Performance Measurement Framework (SAI PMF), organized by the General Court of Audit in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Saudi Center for Financial and Performance Auditing (SCFPA) in coordination with the General Secretariat of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf.
The program aimed to familiarize participants with the concept and strategic importance of the Performance Measurement Framework (PMF) in improving the performance of SAIs and with performance measurement tools such as Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and other standards and measures. The training was designed to enhance the performance management skills of trainees by focusing on follow up procedures, periodic performance analysis, making continuous improvements based on results, and building a culture of performance measurement in the SAI to maintain the levels of improvement.
