Auditor General Alar Karis signs cooperation agreement with UN Environment Programme on behalf of environmental auditors of 74 countries

Toomas Mattson | 9/11/2013 | 1:12 PM

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NAIROBI, 11 September 2013 - On Monday, Auditor General of Estonia Alar Karis and UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner signed a Memorandum of Understanding at the head office of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in Nairobi, which promotes evaluation of the performance of the environmental obligations of states that arise from hundreds of international conventions and other treaties.

Karis signed the cooperation agreement on behalf of the environmental auditors of 74 countries, as the National Audit Office of Estonia currently chairs the Working Group on Environmental Auditing of the International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI).
It is necessary to increase the efficiency of environmental auditing, as the condition of the environment continues to deteriorate despite the environmental obligations assumed by countries with international treaties. One of the reasons is that the control mechanisms and feedback that should indicate whether governments are actually performing the obligations they have entered into are often weak. Despite this, the situation in auditing the area of the environment has improved somewhat in recent years. Since environmental auditors have started assessing the performance of the international obligations of governments more than before, improving cooperation is necessary for both organisations – INTOSAI, which unites auditors, and the UN Environment Programme, whose mission includes monitoring the performance of the ca. 280 global environmental conventions.
The audits carried out by national audit offices in the area of government, including cooperation audits, are a valuable source of information for the UNEP about problems related to the implementation of international treaties. The objective of the cooperation memorandum is to take the present cooperation of the UNEP and INTOSAI to a new level.

Background
The Working Group on Environmental Auditing of the International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI) includes 75 national audit organisations from all continents where auditing the performance, efficiency and impact of environmental policies and programmes is seen as a priority.
The National Audit Office of Estonia has chaired the activities of the Working Group on Environmental Auditing since 2008 and will officially pass on the role of chair to the Indonesian National Audit Office at the INTOSAI congress to be held in China in October.
 

INTOSAI was established in 1953. At present it unites 191 supreme audit institutions from around the world. The National Audit Office of Estonia has been a member of INTOSAI since 1992 and has been participating in the Working Group on Environmental Auditing since 1996.
Website of INTOSAI Working Group on Environmental Auditing: http://www.environmental-auditing.org
Press release of UNEP: http://www.unep.org/newscentre/Default.aspx?DocumentID=2726&ArticleID=9607&l=en

  • Posted: 9/11/2013 1:12 PM
  • Last Update: 8/16/2015 12:25 AM
  • Last Review: 8/16/2015 12:25 AM

Auditor General of Estonia Alar Karis (right) and UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner shake hands after signing the memorandum.

National Audit Office, Tuuli Rasso

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