Bilateral meeting with the US Auditor General
At the invitation of Ivan Klesic, the Auditor General of the Republic of Croatia, on September 22 and 23, 2024, Gene Dodaro , Comptroller General of the United States of America, visited Croatia with his colleagues: Stephen Sanford, Strategic Planning and External Liaison in Government Accountability Office of the USA (GAO) and Brody Garner , GAO Protocol Program Manager.
At the bilateral meeting, among other things, the work, way of functioning and results of the two institutions were discussed, practical experiences related to the risk identification system for strategic planning, auditing of central banks and financial institutions and capacity development were exchanged. Considering the increasing economic, climate and technological-informational interdependence of countries and thus the increased value of a common perspective that can be achieved through close cooperation, the meeting was also dedicated to considering the possibility of expanding the cooperation of the two SAIs in the matter of strengthening the efficiency, transparency and responsibility of the public sector in various aspects as well as the development of new methodological approaches in auditing and the discussion on the modalities of continued cooperation between the Supreme Audit Institutions of the Republic of Croatia and the USA.
As part of the bilateral visit, a seminar for auditors was also held, where three panels discussed some of the most current topics within the auditing profession, such as:
The climate crisis is a global phenomenon with strong environmental, social, energy, economic and other effects consequences. As such, it has been in the focus of supreme audit institutions for many years. Due to the recognized potential risks and costs of climate change, it is to be expected that state auditors will continue to deal with this area in the future. As part of the discussion, it was concluded that supreme audit institutions must be ready to conduct audits dealing with climate change, which entails the need to invest in internal knowledge and capacities, stronger cooperation between supreme audit institutions and other stakeholders, engagement and even possible employment of experts specialized in climate change.
Modern trends in audit development have shown the need for an agile approach in the way of work. The panel emphasized that an agile approach can contribute to speed, flexibility, and efficiency in the work of state auditors. It was stressed that agile audit is not a substitute for the traditional approach, but is recognized as an audit approach that can add value in certain cases such as emergency situations or extremely long and complex audits. The discussion confirmed the value of submitting early continuous partial reports. In this way, audit subjects are given the opportunity to correct observed irregularities and omissions more quickly. Considering the above, the application of this approach will become more and more frequent and will be accompanied by the appropriate development of capacities.
Digitization processes and the use of artificial intelligence as strategic goals of states have led to the need for legal regulation of them. With the development and increased use of technologies, SAIs must continuously adapt their methodology in order to successfully perform their tasks in a technologically changed environment. The use of artificial intelligence as a tool for audit implementation brings numerous benefits such as time savings or increased efficiency of state auditors. However, it was concluded that the very process of implementing the artificial intelligence system requires significant financial resources, new skills of state auditors and raises the issue of data protection and ethics. Therefore, when introducing artificial intelligence into their work, supreme audit institutions should take care of such challenges. In the future, a greater application of artificial intelligence systems by audit subjects is expected, and thus the need for auditing such systems.
The seminar was opened by Ivan Klesic, Auditor General of the Republic of Croatia and Gene Dodaro, Comptroller General of the USA.
The seminar was moderated by Prof. Ph.D. Ivana Mamic-Sacer, while eminent experts in the field of discussion attended as panelists : M.Sc. Dunja Mazzocco Drvar , director of the nature protection program in WWF Adria, Prof. Ph.D. Sanja Sever Malis, Dean of the Faculty of Economics, University of Zagreb, Prof. Ph.D. Ivan Kopric, Dean of the Faculty of Law of the University of Zagreb, and representatives of the supreme audit institutions: Stephen Sanford, Strategic Planning and External lisison at GAO, Ph.D. Nediljka Rogosic, Deputy Auditor General of the Republic of Croatia, M.Sc. Božo Vuletic-Antic, Assistant Auditor General and Martina Jurjevic, Assistant Auditor General at SAO Croatia.
Both events were aimed at and contributed to the enrichment of acquired knowledge and experience, but also to the creation of new ideas for further development and improvement of the work of both institutions and the audit profession in general. In this sense, it was agreed that the State Audit Office, at the invitation of the Comptroller General of the USA, should join the work of the INTOSAI Working Group for Financial and Economic Stability, which is chaired by the GAO, while the Auditor General of the Republic of Croatia invited the GAO to join EUROSAI Network for Ethics, chaired by the State Audit Office of the Republic of Croatia.
At the bilateral meeting, among other things, the work, way of functioning and results of the two institutions were discussed, practical experiences related to the risk identification system for strategic planning, auditing of central banks and financial institutions and capacity development were exchanged. Considering the increasing economic, climate and technological-informational interdependence of countries and thus the increased value of a common perspective that can be achieved through close cooperation, the meeting was also dedicated to considering the possibility of expanding the cooperation of the two SAIs in the matter of strengthening the efficiency, transparency and responsibility of the public sector in various aspects as well as the development of new methodological approaches in auditing and the discussion on the modalities of continued cooperation between the Supreme Audit Institutions of the Republic of Croatia and the USA.
As part of the bilateral visit, a seminar for auditors was also held, where three panels discussed some of the most current topics within the auditing profession, such as:
- involvement of supreme audit institutions in audits related to climate change and resilience
- the added value of agile auditing in the work of supreme audit institutions
- technology, science and artificial intelligence in audit.
The climate crisis is a global phenomenon with strong environmental, social, energy, economic and other effects consequences. As such, it has been in the focus of supreme audit institutions for many years. Due to the recognized potential risks and costs of climate change, it is to be expected that state auditors will continue to deal with this area in the future. As part of the discussion, it was concluded that supreme audit institutions must be ready to conduct audits dealing with climate change, which entails the need to invest in internal knowledge and capacities, stronger cooperation between supreme audit institutions and other stakeholders, engagement and even possible employment of experts specialized in climate change.
Modern trends in audit development have shown the need for an agile approach in the way of work. The panel emphasized that an agile approach can contribute to speed, flexibility, and efficiency in the work of state auditors. It was stressed that agile audit is not a substitute for the traditional approach, but is recognized as an audit approach that can add value in certain cases such as emergency situations or extremely long and complex audits. The discussion confirmed the value of submitting early continuous partial reports. In this way, audit subjects are given the opportunity to correct observed irregularities and omissions more quickly. Considering the above, the application of this approach will become more and more frequent and will be accompanied by the appropriate development of capacities.
Digitization processes and the use of artificial intelligence as strategic goals of states have led to the need for legal regulation of them. With the development and increased use of technologies, SAIs must continuously adapt their methodology in order to successfully perform their tasks in a technologically changed environment. The use of artificial intelligence as a tool for audit implementation brings numerous benefits such as time savings or increased efficiency of state auditors. However, it was concluded that the very process of implementing the artificial intelligence system requires significant financial resources, new skills of state auditors and raises the issue of data protection and ethics. Therefore, when introducing artificial intelligence into their work, supreme audit institutions should take care of such challenges. In the future, a greater application of artificial intelligence systems by audit subjects is expected, and thus the need for auditing such systems.
The seminar was opened by Ivan Klesic, Auditor General of the Republic of Croatia and Gene Dodaro, Comptroller General of the USA.
The seminar was moderated by Prof. Ph.D. Ivana Mamic-Sacer, while eminent experts in the field of discussion attended as panelists : M.Sc. Dunja Mazzocco Drvar , director of the nature protection program in WWF Adria, Prof. Ph.D. Sanja Sever Malis, Dean of the Faculty of Economics, University of Zagreb, Prof. Ph.D. Ivan Kopric, Dean of the Faculty of Law of the University of Zagreb, and representatives of the supreme audit institutions: Stephen Sanford, Strategic Planning and External lisison at GAO, Ph.D. Nediljka Rogosic, Deputy Auditor General of the Republic of Croatia, M.Sc. Božo Vuletic-Antic, Assistant Auditor General and Martina Jurjevic, Assistant Auditor General at SAO Croatia.
Both events were aimed at and contributed to the enrichment of acquired knowledge and experience, but also to the creation of new ideas for further development and improvement of the work of both institutions and the audit profession in general. In this sense, it was agreed that the State Audit Office, at the invitation of the Comptroller General of the USA, should join the work of the INTOSAI Working Group for Financial and Economic Stability, which is chaired by the GAO, while the Auditor General of the Republic of Croatia invited the GAO to join EUROSAI Network for Ethics, chaired by the State Audit Office of the Republic of Croatia.
