(MENAFN - Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) GCC chief auditors held a meeting here on Saturday with some officials noting great need to overhaul the sector to make more powerful and effective in shadow of record financial growth.
Addressing the inaugural session, the head of the Saudi general auditing bureau, Usama Al-Faqih, said promoting performance of the audit apparatuses in the GCC countries would require adoption of latest scientific methods and professional means to ensure optimum fulfillment of the tasks in this field.
Role of the audit offices and authorities exceeds limits of financial accounting, pin pointing flaws and irregularities to the scope of transparency and disclosure, he added. Overhauling the sector would also warrant upgrading the financial and accounting systems and presenting practical solutions to ensure regular and defect-free performance.
He added that the role of these authorities has become greater as a result of unprecedented growth of spending in the GCC countries, and such a reality warranted boosting coordination with the national authorities, tasked with ensuring integrity and law-abidance. Interest by the International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI) and affiliated regional agencies in updating means and mechanisms for supervision on financial assets and public resources is due to the theme that abundance of financial resources does not necessarily contribute in realizing goals of sustainable development, he said For his part, the GCC Assistant Secretary General for Economic Affairs, Abdullah Al-Shalbi, said in his statement to the meeting that enhancing role of the audit bodies would require mutual cooperation and devising new mechanisms for tighter control.
He confirmed that the meeting was aimed at boosting inter-GCC audit activities.
Participants in today's session discussed plans for enhancing cooperation, exchanging expertise and assessing performance of the audit authorities in the member states of the council.
Abdel Aziz Al-Adsani, the Chairman of Kuwait Audit Bureau, took part in the meeting.
