The SAIs of Bulgaria and India will cooperate in the field of performance audits and data analysis

A delegation from the Supreme Audit Institution (SAI) of India, led by Mr. Girish Chandra Murmu, Comptroller and Auditor General of India, is visiting the Bulgarian National Audit Office (BNAO).

An official meeting between the BNAO management and the delegation from SAI of India took place on  the 17th of April at the BNAO headquarters. From the BNAO part, in the meeting participated: Goritsa Grancharova - Kozhareva, Acting President of the BNAO, Toshko Todorov, Vice – President of the BNAO, Emil Evlogiev and Prof. Georgi Ivanov - members of the BNAO, Toma Donchev - Director of Audit Activity Development Directorate, Nadezhda Nikolova - Head of Department Performance Audits of EU Funds in Performance audits Directorate and Enita Enikova - Director of Public relations, International Relations and Protocol Directorate.

SAI of India was presented by Mr Girish Chandra Murmu, Comptroller and Auditor General of India, Ms. Geeta Menon, Addl. Deputy CAG of India, H.E. Mr. Sanjay Rana, Ambassador of India to the Republic of Bulgaria and Dr. Gaurav Kumar, Director of International Relations.

Your visit is significant for us because of the outstanding contribution of the SAI India to our professional community and to the BNAO in particular, Ms. Grancharova addressed the guests. She thanked them for the assistance provided through the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation Program (ITEC), where many Bulgarian auditors underwent a number of trainings related to audit in general and in particular - to performance audit. Ms. Grancharova also highlighted the personal contribution of Mr. Murmu and the SAI of India as a member of the INTOSAI Governing Board and Chairman of the INTOSAI Knowledge Sharing Committee for the development of the external audit in the public sector and the dissemination of good audit practices.

SAI of India supports the UN Sustainable Development Goals and is aware of the great responsibility that the audit institutions bear in their implementation.

It is an honour for the Indian SAI to share its experience with the audit institutions of other countries, including Bulgaria, Mr. Murmu said. He highly appreciated the participation of the Bulgarian SAI in the structures of the international professional organization INTOSAI.

Mrs. Grancharova highlighted two main topics where the BNAO sees potential and need for interaction - data analysis and performance audit. She also specified that the Bulgarian SAI has been actively working this year on the implementation of the IT audit as a long-term project of our institution, where specialized trainings will be necessary. Mrs. Grancharova also pointed out that the Bulgarian SAI highly appreciates the capacity of the Indian audit institution in this area, not only as the Head of the INTOSAI Working Group on IT audit, but also as having the International Center for Information Systems and Audit.

Mr. Donchev added that currently the use of data analysis by the BNAO is mainly carried out in financial audits through specialized software - for general consolidation of data of large public organizations, for identification of unusual records and transactions and for statistical samples. He specified that the Bulgarian SAI is willing to use it in the strategic and annual planning of the audit activity, in specific audits and when summarizing the annual results of the institution’s activity.

Ms. Nikolova presented the development of performance audits from 2002 until now. She emphasized that serious efforts have been made over the years for the improvement of the audit methodology and the development of the administrative capacity through cooperation and exchange of experience with other SAIs, but she pointed out that this capacity is still insufficient. For this reason, we will rely on SAI of India to share its good practices.

According to Mr. Murmu, in addition to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, Supreme Audit Institutions face challenges in two other areas – climate change and audits of activities related to climate change, as well as global financial stability. New technologies can be used in these areas as well as in performance audits and their annual planning.

Mrs. Goritsa Grancharova - Kozhareva and Mr. Girish Chandra Murmu signed a cooperation agreement between the two SAIs. The main areas of interaction will be the exchange of experience and information in the field of performance audits and data analysis, discussion of new challenges and good practices in external auditing, exchange of methodological developments, etc.