The Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (OISC/CPLP) held the first special video conference on the morning of 22 October (Brazil time) to celebrate its 25th anniversary.

In response to the global pandemic, the conference was conducted by video and chaired by the President of Portuguese Court of Auditors, José Tavares. Participants were the heads of the Supreme Audit Institutions (SAI) in eight Portuguese-speaking countries, including Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal, Sao Tome and Principe as well as East Timor, and the Commission of Audit of Macao participated in the conference as an observer.

The theme of the conference was “Cooperation between SAIs of Portuguese-speaking countries: challenges and opportunities in the past 25 years”. The heads of SAIs shared their views around the theme and agreed that the cooperation with each other had a positive impact.

In the written statement, the Commissioner of Audit, Ho Veng On, emphasized that OISC/CPLP plays an important role in improving the auditing skill, especially through the exchange of experience and knowledge sharing on public audit theory and its practice, strengthening the external monitoring and the independence of good public governance, and making the use of public resources more efficient, effective and transparent. He pointed out that through a deeper understanding, mutual discussion, repeated exploration and professional exchanges of certain public audit problems, it will help audit institutions to build capacities in the areas of system, organization, technology and culture, in order to improve the effectiveness and quality of government audit work.

When mentioning the future challenges/opportunities of public audit, the Commissioner of Audit believed that these include: the challenges in supporting the implementation of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) in the United Nations 2030 Agenda, the challenges faced by auditing in the digital environment and the challenges posed by the higher demands on the capacities of institutions and the professional proficiency of auditors. At the same time, the global pandemic has also increased the difficulty in executing the SDGs, especially for developing countries, which makes future work on technology, training and organizational cooperation between the organization and the SAIs more important, in order to enhance the contribution of audit institutions to good public governance and the realization of SDGs.

OISC/CPLP was established in Lisbon in 1995 and is recognized by the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI).