Kuwait hosts international meeting on IT audit
Forty countries participate
KUWAIT: Forty countries are participating in the 23rd International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI) Working Group on Information Technology Audit (WGITA) meeting in Kuwait from Feb 10 to 12. The opening ceremony was held at the Crowne Plaza hotel yesterday, where representatives from various countries discussed issues such as the website of the working group, IT governance, data mining as a tool in fraud investigation, development of standards for state information systems, project audits among others.
“Our membership in INTOSAI - that comprises a selection of distinguished and highly experienced professional specializations related to working group tasks - indicates the importance of the working group and the support it provides to our SAIs that are members in INTOSAI to enhance their capabilities in the field of information technology through activities, publications, projects, researches, specialized journals and many other valuable products,” said Abdul Aziz Al-Adasani, President of the Audit Bureau of Kuwait, during the opening ceremony.
Reliance on IT in performing different tasks saves time and efforts. “It also allows achieving adequate performance, as it became a feature of this era and requirement for the development to enable our SAIs to adapt with the developments, maintaining their position and progress and realizing the maximum benefit to achieve their tasks effectively and efficiently,” he added. “This matter requires collaborated efforts, increase and development of cooperation prospects, exchange experiences, promoting training activities at all levels and sharing knowledge in compliance with the INTOSAI declared motto ‘Mutual Experience Benefits All’,” stressed Adasani.
Shashi Kant Sharma, Comptroller and Auditor General of India and Chairman, Working Group on IT Audit, welcomed a new member. “I have great pleasure in informing the members that the membership of the INTOSAI Working Group on IT Audit has grown to 40 (including one observer). I welcome SAI of Zambia as the new member to this working group,” he said in his opening remarks.
“The auditing environment has undergone tremendous change with the increasing application of information technology across all fields in society. To meet these challenges, SAIs worldwide have adopted information technology in the process of government auditing to effectively enhance the quality and efficiency of audits. The Working Group on IT Audit is constantly working to support SAIs in developing their capacity and skills in information technology audit by facilitating knowledge sharing and encouraging bilateral and regional cooperation,” he added.
During the 22nd meeting held in April 2013, a total of five projects on emerging issues of IT audit have been identified by the working group in its work plan for developing further International Standards of Supreme Audit Institutions (ISSAI) research papers during the next three years. “This meeting will review and discuss the progress made so far of these five IT projects undertaken by the Working Group,” stressed Sharma.
Another important role of this working group is promoting and sharing best practices and methods in information technology related audits and to facilitate the exchange of information and experience. “We have in this meeting three SAIs presenting country papers on a variety of topics like recent trends in IT audit, different procedures of IT audit and developments of IT audit and the support IT audit provides to both financial and performance audits. The INTOSAI Development Initiative (IDI) will also be giving an update on its activities,” he added.
“The 5300 series of ISSAIs lacks an overarching, generic standard on IT audit, which enunciates the first principles of IT auditing. Therefore, the Working Group has taken up a project for developing ISSAI 5300 on basic principles of IT audit. The review of ISSAI-5310, which was due for review in 2013, would be taken up after finalization of ISSAI-5300 in the next INTOSAI Congress in 2016,” concluded Sharma.