Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Ramadan 17, 1445 H
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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

SAI strengthens international relations

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MUSCAT: The Sultanate, represented in its institutions and agencies, has always been keen to ensure positive participation in the international community activities of regional and international organisations.


This comes within the framework of cooperation and achieving mutual interests that would result in sustaining growth and peace worldwide.


The Sultanate has maintained a high profile standing between countries. It is widely respected and appreciated by the international community being under the prosperous regime of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos.


This approach is manifested by State Audit Institution (SAI) when it comes to its relationships with the counterpart agencies regionally and internationally.


Kamila bint Hilal al Siyabiya, Acting Head of International Organizations Department at SAI, stated that SAI has a distinctive presence in the regional and international arena demonstrated by SAI membership in a number of regional and international committees, whether those relevant to financial audit or those relevant to combating corruption.


Al Siyabiya said SAI worked on following up the implementation of the commitments stipulated in the different agreements in which the Sultanate is a member. Those agreements are relevant to auditing, integrity protection and fighting corruption. Besides, the Department is responsible for communicating with SAI counterpart agencies and regional and international organisations working in the field of protecting integrity and combating corruption.


With regards to SAI membership in the organisations relevant to financial auditing, Al Siyabiya said that in 1988, SAI joined the Arab Organization for Supreme Audit Institutions (ARABOSAI) and in 2002 SAI joined the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI) which is an independent and non-political organisation. It is a non-governmental organisation with special consultative status with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations.


On the international level, Al Siyabiya said that SAI has strengthened its relationships with international organisations after joining the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) as per the royal decree no 63/2013.


SAI was assigned by the Cabinet to follow up the execution of the convention and to carry out the tasks of an Anti-Corruption Agency.


SAI works hand in hand with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), which serves as the Secretariat for the Conference of the States Parties (CoSP) to the UNCAC. Through such cooperation, SAI seeks to highlight regional and international developments relevant to audit field, integrity protection and combating corruption in order to benefit from the international efforts exerted and add value. This will result in improving professional and technical expertise and elevating the audit work overall.


Al Siyabiya added that SAI has partnered with a number of academies that are specialized in audit and professional development and anti-corruption to organise specialized training workshops in a number of relevant fields. Example of such cooperation is that with the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to take part in a number of programmes on the application of governance and integrity standards when executing infrastructure projects and public-private partnerships (PPPs).


SAI has also collaborated with the International Anti-Corruption Academy (IACA), which trains professionals to fight corruption. Furthermore, the Malaysia Anti-Corruption Academy (MACA) is another significant collaboration SAI is maintaining.


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