The 24th Congress of the International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions INTOSAI was hosted by the SAI Brazil which took over the 3-year presidency.
Therefore, more than 700 SAI representatives from 147 countries and other institutions and chambers, also from the Court of Audit of the Republic of Slovenia, attended the congress. The President of the Court of Audit Jana Ahčin used the opportunity to meet the heads of the SAIs and auditors general to discuss bilateral cooperation and exchange of experience, joint audit implementation and organisation of joint international events.
The first day of the congress was dedicated to the presentation of all reports of regional organisations of SAIs for the last three years, whereby the attention was directed towards altered activities of the SAIs before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Along the organisational changes the important aspect was also the SAIs need to adjust the audit topics to the circumstances. One of the concerns was the increase in the corruption cases, thus INTOSAI members were asked to start using the guidelines developed by the working group for fighting corruption in order to help SAIs to bond with institutions that promote integrity and prevent corruption.
The main topics of the congress were: (1) the role of Supreme Audit Institutions in emergency situations, not only the impacts of the pandemic but also other situations such as natural disasters, accidents caused by human behaviour (terrorist attacks, war, cyber-attacks, excessive tourism ...) and (2) global operations of the Supreme Audit Institutions for drafting the INTOSAI strategic plan 2023–2028.
Alongside the congress there were also discussions related to current topics, such as: the role of the SAIs in relation to the fiscal responsibility and public debt, ways of SAIs cooperation in meeting the sustainability objectives, digital transformation of governments and SAIs, activities of SAIs in prevention of fraud and corruption and assuring SAIs independence. The latter caused much concern among the participants, since INTOSAI Development Initiative detected increased negative trend in assuring the SAIs independence. Most common irregularities were detected in the field of independent selection of audits and financing of SAIs.
The key document of the congress was the adopted Rio Declaration that summarises all important points of the discussions: responsiveness of the SAIs in emergency situations, strengthening the global voice of the SAIs, importance of the key principles – independence, transparency, professionalism and better cooperation with external stakeholders.
At the final meeting new members of the INTOSAI Governing Board and external auditors of the INTOSAI were elected. The SAI Egypt was appointed as the host of the next INTOSAI congress in 2025.