The Commission of Audit of Macau SAR (CA), as an observer, participated in the seminar of the Supreme Audit Institutions of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (OISC/CPLP) held in the capital of Mozambique, Maputo, on 15 and 16 June 2015. The seminar theme this year was “Application of SAI – PMF: Concepts, benefits and challenges”.

The Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) of Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Macau, Portugal, Sao Tome and Principe, East Timor and the delegates of audit institutions of Africa participated in the seminar.

In his speech, Ho Veng On mentioned the necessary of establishing the Supreme Audit Institution – Performance Measure Framework (SAI – PMF), which including the common referential criteria. A series of completed international standards of SAIs (ISSAIs) was adopted in the 20th General Assembly of INTOSAI held in Johannesburg in 2010, since then, the members of INTOSAI began to examine their own performance status by comparing with the government external auditing standards, in this content, the appearance of SAI – PMF precisely responded to the demand of SAIs in this regard.

Ho Veng On emphasized that, the concept of SAI – PMF was inspired by the audit principle of article 12 of ISSAIs - “Value and benefits of SAIs – Play an important role in public life”, which was adopted at the 21st General Assembly of INTOSAI held in Beijing in 2013, and was deeply influenced by the performance assessment framework for the Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA), which is applicable to the major international institutions aiming to standardize the performance assessment methodology of management of public finances worldwide.

Ho Veng On also highlighted that, the main purpose of SAI – PMF is to establish a standardize and comprehensive framework (methodology), for evaluating, measuring, monitoring, managing and reporting on the performance of the each SAIs, with reference to the series of principles and standards of ISSAIs and the best international practices of other governments’ external audit.

Ho Veng On further said that the 1st stage of SAI – PMF comprises of a quantitative evaluation of the performance of the institutions, which will assign a score to SAIs in accordance with the benchmark indicators (22 or 24) and related fields based on a series of international auditing standards and other best practices. Quantitative evaluation helps to understand the performance status of the institutions or to conduct the relevant qualitative analysis in order to prepare a standardized and quality proved performance report which covers all scopes or critical areas related to institutional performance and the external environmental factors which are likely to affect the work of the institutions.

Ho Veng On proposed that the application of SAI – PMF would bring multiple benefits for SAIs, notably for conducting comparison on the actual performance with the audit international standards of the institutions under various fields and indicators in order to identify the weakness of the audit institutions or the key points for improvement in future’s development plan. There is also a benefit to strength the culture and practices of constantly improving and continuous learning in order to meet the challenges of public audit and international best practice.

Ho Veng On emphasized in the conclusion that, the application of SAI – PMF is likely to give directions to the evaluated institutions on the aspects that should be improved to enhance their ability to promote and monitor good public governance, and be a model organization to demonstrate the value and benefits of public audit to the public and other parties.

After the group discussion and summarization, “Declaration of Maputo” was unanimously adopted by all participated delegations on 16 June 2015, as a basic position of SAI – PMF of OISC/CPLP advocating to INTOSAI.

During his stay in Maputo, Ho Veng On, with courtesy visited the Chinese Embassy of Mozambique, Li Chunhua.