Arab audit institutions meet to reduce impact of COVID-19

Muscat: Government audit institutions from the Arab World have met to discuss methods to reduce the economic impact of the novel coronavirus on their countries.
The meeting was chaired by Oman’s State Audit Institution (SAI), which led the extraordinary meeting of the Institutional Capacity Development Committee of the Arab Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions (ARABOSAI).
The meeting took place through video conferencing from SAI’s headquarters in Al Bustan, Muscat. The meeting was attended by committee members in an aim to discuss efforts exerted to mitigate the implications of the COVID-19 outbreak on capacities of SAIs relevant to training programmes and workshops scheduled for the year 2020.
The meeting included reviewing one of the themes of the extraordinary plan that had been presented to the executive council of the organisation as part of its 60th meeting.
The theme focused on reprogramming training courses and workshops to ensure they conformed to the emerging needs, after reviewing committee members’ views, and to incorporate the benefits gained from existing steps put in place by international organisations, and particularly INTOSAI, regional organisations and technical committees.
During the meeting, the members also discussed a number of matters relevant to assessing strategies to combat epidemics and means of prevention, accelerating the establishment of an online learning platform, identifying groups that can contribute to finding new technologies for audit amidst exceptional situations, as well as preparing relevant manuals and working procedures for organisations to consult during this period.