A delegation from the Supreme Audit Institution (SAO) of India, led by Mr. Shri Girish Chandra Murmu, Comptroller and Auditor General of India, is visiting the Bulgarian Audit Office.
An official meeting between the management of the Audit Office and the SAI delegation of India took place on April 17 at the audit institution. The Bulgarian side took part in the meeting: Gorica Grancharova – Kozhareva, acting as the chairman of the Audit Chamber, Toshko Todorov, deputy chairman of the Audit Chamber, Emil Evlogiev and Prof. Georgi Ivanov – members of the Audit Chamber, Toma Donchev – director of the Directorate ” Development of audit activity”, Nadezhda Nikolova – head of department in the audit directorate “Performance audits” and Enita Enikova – director of the directorate “Public relations, international activity and protocol”.
On behalf of SAI of India, Shri Girish Chandra Murmu – Comptroller and Auditor General of SAI of India, Geetha Menon – Additional Deputy Comptroller and Auditor General of SAI of India, H.E. Sanjay Rana – Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of India in Bulgaria and Gaurav Kumar – Director of International Affairs.
“Your visit is significant for us because of the exceptional contribution of the Supreme Audit Institution of India to our professional community and to the Bulgarian Audit Chamber in particular,” Ms. Grancharova addressed the guests. She thanked for the assistance provided through the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) program, through which many Bulgarian auditors underwent a number of trainings related to auditing in general and, in particular, to performance auditing. Ms. Grancharova also highlighted the contribution of Mr. Murmu and the SAI of India personally as a member of the INTOSAI Board of Directors and Chairman of the INTOSAI Knowledge Sharing Committee for the development of external audit in the public sector and the dissemination of good audit practices.
The SAI of India supports the UN Sustainable Development Goals and is aware of the great responsibility audit institutions bear in their implementation. It is an honor for the Indian SAI to share its experience with the audit institutions of other countries, including Bulgaria, said Mr. Murmu. He highly appreciated the participation of the Bulgarian SAI in the structures of the international professional organization INTOSAI.
Mrs. Grancharova highlighted two main topics in which the Bulgarian Audit Chamber sees potential and need for interaction – data analysis and performance audit. She also specified that the Bulgarian SAI has been actively working since this year on the implementation of the IT audit as a long-term project of the Bulgarian SAI, and specialized training on specific aspects of it will be necessary. Mrs. Grancharova also pointed out that the Bulgarian SAI highly appreciates the capacity of the Indian audit institution in this field, not only as the head of the INTOSAI Working Group on IT audit, but also as the capabilities of the International Center for Information Systems and Audit.
Mr. Donchev added that currently the use of data analysis by the Bulgarian Audit Office is mainly carried out in financial audits through specialized software – for general consolidation of data of large public organizations, for identification of unusual records and transactions and for statistical samples. He specified that the Bulgarian SAI is willing to use it in the strategic and annual planning of the audit activity, in specific audits and in summarizing the annual results of the activity.
Ms. Nikolova presented the development of performance audits from 2002 until now. She emphasized that serious efforts have been made over the years to improve the methodology and develop the administrative capacity through cooperation and exchange of experience with other SAIs, but this capacity is still insufficient. For this reason, we will rely on SAIs of India to share good practices.
According to Mr. Murmu, in addition to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, Supreme Audit Institutions face challenges in two other areas – climate change and audits of climate change-related activities, as well as global financial stability. New technologies can be used in these areas as well as in performance audits and their annual planning.
Mrs. Gorica Grancharova – Kozhareva and Mr. Girish Chandra Murmu signed a cooperation agreement between the two SAIs. The main areas of interaction will be the exchange of experience and information in the field of performance auditing and data analysis; discussion of novelties, challenges and good practices in external auditing, exchange of methodological developments, etc.
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