Arun Jaitley to address auditors general of commonwealth nations

On 22 March, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will address the auditors general of the commonwealth nations and British overseas territories.

The 3-day conference that opened today is being held in India for the first time, hosted by Comptroller & Auditor General (CAG).

Representatives of the participating nations will look into the scope of leveraging technology in public audit as well as share experiences on environment audit.

The 23rd conference will be attended by 52 commonwealth countries and 9 British overseas territories.

"While some of these countries feature in most developed countries of the world, there are several which belong to Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and Small Island Developing States (SIDS)," a finance ministry statement said.

The auditing organisations in these countries come together every three years to discuss the challenges before them. The last conference was held in Malta in 2014.

About 80 delegates from 37 countries are expected to participate in the conference. There will be 24 heads of Supreme Audit Institutions (SAI), the statement said.

CAG, under Shashi Kant Sharma, is a pioneering SAI in the field of data analytics and use of technology in public Auditing.

CAG also heads the International Working Group on Information System Audits and provides technical assistance to various audit institutions of other countries in use of technology and conducting IT audits.

Similarly on Environment related subjects, several CAG reports on water pollution, waste management, renewable energy and compensatory afforestation have been lauded nationally and internationally, the statement said.