This year on July 16–22 in Ottawa, Canada, the fifth meeting of the Forum for Intosai Professional Pronouncements (FIPP) (further — the Forum) of the most prominent international organisation of supreme audit institutions INTOSAI took place, where decisions on improving the existing International Standards of Supreme Audit Institutions (ISSAI) and on the development of new international auditing standards were made, which are important for the public sector auditors as a profession.
The Forum examined INTOSAI committees’ proposals (projects) on development or improvement of standards, including the substantiation on necessity of the development of new standards. As a result of the discussions, the following standards and guidelines on public sector audits were green-lighted: the guiding principles on conducting financial audits (ISSAI 200); the guidelines on the application of the standards on financial audits (GUID 2000); the guidelines on the application of the standards on compliance audits (GUID 4100 and 4200); the guidelines on IT inspections within the scope of financial, compliance and performance audits; on development on new guidelines on conducting combined financial, compliance and performance audits, etc.
INTOSAI members are supreme audit institutions from 192 countries around the world, and standards and guidelines on audits are developed by INTOSAI committees and/or working groups. The Forum, on its part, performs the quality control of the standards and guidelines which have been developed by INTOSAI committees and working groups, as well as consults them in the process of developing these standards and guidelines.
The Forum members are selected through call for applications choosing among representatives of supreme audit institutions capable of making the greatest contribution in developing the field of auditing at a high professional level; here also regional representations are taken into account. Currently, 15 representatives of the supreme audit institutions of the USA, Canada, France, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Latvia, India, New Zeeland, South Africa, Indonesia, Guatemala, as well as from the European Court of Auditors are working for the Forum.
The State Audit Office sees the opportunity to work for the Forum as a very high professional evaluation of its work from the international community of public sector auditors. The work for the INTOSAI Forum, as well as the fact of receiving the mandate of a member of the board of EUROSAI (a regional organisation of INTOSAI) this June demonstrate that the State Audit Office of the Republic of Latvia has become an internationally recognised example and promoter of best auditing practices at international level. It should be noted that so far none of the supreme audit institutions of the Central Europe or Eastern Europe have been able to qualify for the membership in the Forum.
In the INTOSAI Forum the State Audit Office of the Republic of Latvia is represented by the Strategy Adviser to Auditor General M. Salgrāve.