Cooperation with supreme audit institutions in South-East Asia
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations Supreme Audit Institutions (ASEANSAI), which consists of ten supreme audit institutions in South-East Asia, cooperates with the Swedish National Audit Office to improve and strengthen auditing in the region. Together, they develop training programmes and strategic plans to ensure that central government resources are used efficiently and that tax revenue is monitored transparently.
Focus areas
The Swedish National Audit Office has a long-term cooperation with ASEANSAI. The aim of this collaboration is to strengthen and enhance auditing in the region and thereby contribute to the efficient use of central government resources and to the transparency of the use of tax revenue for parliament and citizens. An important issue for ASEANSAI is also to improve cooperation between supreme audit institutions in the region so that members can support each other and thus strengthen auditing in each country.
The ten member countries of ASEANSAI are Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
ASEANSAI is a subregional organisation under the Asian Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions (ASOSAI). ASOSAI is one of seven regional organisations recognised by the International Organisation of Supreme Audit institutions (INTOSAI), the global umbrella organisation for supreme audit institutions of which the Swedish National Audit Office is a member.
Develops training programmes and capabilities for holding training programmes
An area in which we cooperate is on the development of training programmes and relevant and adapted training material.
We train some employees to become more specialised and who, in turn, can act as instructors within their authority or region. The aim is to build regional capacity and strengthen knowledge of international standards in different types of audit. Those who receive training gain a better understanding and can share knowledge and methods. One such training programme that we have developed together with auditors in the region links audits to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Another example is our support to the Commission on Audit in the Philippines, which in turn has trained over 30 new auditors from various supreme audit institutions.
Supporting strategic planning in the region
Over the course of our cooperation, we have contributed to the development of the current strategic plan, which informs ASEANSAI’s work during the period 2022–2025.
Outcomes
Our cooperation with ASEANSAI has strengthened both the organisation’s competence and the ten supreme audit institutions involved in the regional efforts. The cooperation has led to improvements such as the following.
- The support for ASEANSAI has led to the development of better and more relevant training material and the organisation has improved its own capabilities for providing training courses.
- Regional capacity and knowledge of international standards have been strengthened.
- We have supported the Commission on Audit in the Philippines which, in turn, has trained over 30 new auditors from various supreme audit institutions.
Circumstances and challenges
ASEANSAI consists of ten supreme audit institutions in South-East Asia. The organisation was founded in 2011 and we have been working with them since 2014. Under our cooperation, we support supreme audit institutions through training and other development efforts.
Supreme audit institutions in the region face different challenges, such as
- The supreme audit institutions’ conditions for carrying out their activities as well as their position in their respective countries vary greatly.
- The ASEANSAI Secretariat has been given a clearer mandate in recent years, to allow for tasks such as coordinating support from donors. However, the Secretariat has a weak role compared to other regional organisations, such as AFROSAI-E.