INTOSAI Working Group on the Audit of Privatisation

Eleventh Meeting
Sofia, 31 May - 3 June 2004

The INTOSAI Working Group on the Audit of Privatisation held its 11th meeting in Sofia on 1 and 2 June 2004. The meeting was attended by representatives of 25 Supreme Audit Institutions.
The meeting opened with welcoming remarks from Dr. Nikolov, President of the National Audit Office of the Republic of Bulgaria. Sir John Bourn, Comptroller and Auditor General of the United Kingdom and Chairman of the Working Group, thanked Dr. Nikolov and his Bulgarian colleagues, on behalf of all delegates, for such a warm welcome and for their excellent efforts in hosting the meeting.
Sir John Bourn also informed delegates that owing to a commitment to the International Labour Organisation he would be departing from Sofia in the afternoon of the 1st June and would hand over the Chair to Jeremy Colman, Assistant Auditor General of the UK National Audit Office.

The Working Group’s remit, as set for it at XVII INCOSAI, was that in the period leading up to XVIII INCOSAI in Budapest in 2004, the Working Group should focus on:

Monitoring the effectiveness of the guidelines adopted by INTOSAI; and
Developing future audit guidance as necessary, for example on audit of issues arising in the partnerships’ field and where the state is a minority shareholder, and on alternatives to regulation.

The agenda for the 11th meeting was able to meet this remit through the following work programme:

Presentations from the SAIs of Bulgaria, Hungary, the UK, Lithuania, the Russian Federation and Prof. Valery Dimitrov, Chair of the Economic Policy Committee at the XXXIX National Assembly of Bulgaria and Mr. Dimitar Ivanovski, Bulgarian Deputy Minister of Economy, on a range of issues relating to the audit of privatisation. There were also papers from the SAIs of Estonia and the UK on matters relating to PPPs and from the SAIs of Norway and Brazil on the audit of economic regulation.
Discussion of recent training outcomes and priorities for future training needs, building on the first meeting of the Working Group’s Training Steering Committee held in Oslo earlier this year.
Discussion around the Chairman’s report to XVIII INCOSAI in October 2004, with wider reflection on the operations of the Working Group over the 10 years since inauguration.

Members found the Working Group guidelines to have a tangible and useful impact on their audits of privatisation and recognise the value of working in partnership with other SAIs. The guidelines have responded to changing circumstances over the past decade. The importance of understanding the country context and the privatisation cycle was raised in a number of presentations, touching upon limitations such as the timing and scope of audits.
The Working Group should continue to assist in training courses in privatisation and post privatisation audit, and the Secretariat will review and action priorities for future training needs agreed at the 11th meeting.
The Chairman will report to INCOSAI in October 2004 on the outputs of the Working Group and fulfilment of our remit as discussed at the 11th meeting. The Chairman circulated to Members a paper based around the first 10 years’ experience of privatisation and related audit issues, which will be included in his report to XVIII INCOSAI.