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INTOSAI Working Group on the Audit of Privatisation,
Economic Regulation and Public Private Partnerships



INTOSAI Working Group on the Audit of Privatisation

The Twelfth Meeting  Brasilia, 12 – 14 September 2005

  1. The INTOSAI Working Group on the Audit of Privatisation held its 12th meeting in Brasilia on 13 and 14 September 2005. The meeting was attended by representatives of 27 Supreme Audit Institutions, 6 who were not yet members of the Group.
  2. The meeting opened with welcoming remarks from Mr. Adylson Motta President of the Court of Audit of Brazil. Sir John Bourn, Comptroller and Auditor General of the United Kingdom and Chairman of the Working Group, thanked Mr. Motta and his Brazilian colleagues, on behalf of all delegates, for such a warm welcome and for their excellent efforts in hosting the meeting.
  3. Sir John Bourn drew attention to the presentation of the conclusions of the 11th meeting to XVIII INCOSAI in Budapest and the need to continue this progress in light of the next meeting in Mexico City in 2007.


Meeting Objectives

  1. At XVIII INCOSAI it was agreed that in the period leading up to XIX INCOSAI in 2007, the Working Group should focus its efforts on:
     
    • Developing and submitting to the Governing Board sets of case studies which cater for differences between SAIs.
    • Continuing to adjust guidelines in the light of experience.
    • To carry out more training through the INTOSAI Development Initiative.
    • To do joint studies with two or more SAIs doing joint reports on selected features of each other’s programmes.
       
  2. The agenda for the 11th meeting was able to meet this remit through the following work programme:
     
    • Presentations from the SAIs of Bulgaria and Morocco, on a range of issues relating to the audit of privatisation. There were also two papers from the SAI of Brazil on the audit of economic regulation and papers from the SAIs of Norway, the UK and Hungary on matters relating to PPPs.
    • A discussion around the Working Groups Draft Technical Case Examples and the best way to take this initiative forward.
    • Discussion of training priorities for future needs.
    • Discussion around the potential opportunities for joint working within the Working Group.
       

Main Conclusions

  1. The main conclusions of the 12th meeting were:
     
    • Members found the Working Group guidelines to have a tangible and useful impact on their audits, as evidenced by the extensive use of the guidelines in the Brazilian approach to the audit of regulation. It is important to update the guidelines to reflect changing circumstances and different levels of experience. This might usefully include:
      • guidance on dealing with independent bodies such as the Moroccan Commission of Transfers and Evaluation Body and the Hungarian PPP Inter-departmental Committee;
      • revising the guidelines to encompass the audit of PPPs across their full lifecycle to reflect the fact that the assessment of vfm can vary over time and;
      • the need to provide measures to protect the State’s ongoing interests.
    • Members welcomed the Draft Technical Case Studies as an addition to the Working Group’s outputs and their focus on drawing lessons from a wider international perspective. However it was felt that it was difficult to derive practical advice from the examples provided.
    • The Working Group should continue to facilitate the sharing of information between both Members and external organisations such as the World Bank and OECD.
    • The Working Group should reconsider training priorities in privatisation and post privatisation audit.

 

Twelfth Meeting Index