PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia has been selected for the first time to chair a working group in the audit community at the Asian Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions (ASOSAI) and International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI) levels. In a statement today, the National Audit Department (NAD) announced that this follows the appointment of Auditor-General Datuk Seri Wan Suraya Wan Mohd Radzi as the chair of two new working groups, namely the ASOSAI Working Group on State-owned Enterprises Audit (WGSOEA) and the INTOSAI Working Group on Follow-up Audit (WGFA).
According to BERNAMA News Agency, the announcement of this decision was conveyed by India as the Chairman of the INTOSAI Knowledge Sharing Committee (KSC) to NAD in mid-November 2024. NAD’s involvement and role in the audit community at the international level is increasingly evident with this appointment. The statement said the working group will serve as a platform to promote the sharing of knowledge and experience among INTOSAI members wi
th the aim of strengthening the impact of auditing through a systematic and more structured audit follow-up mechanism.
To date, there are 65 countries that are members of INTOSAI, with Austria, Brazil, China, Egypt, and Georgia having expressed their intention to become members of the new working group. The establishment of the two working groups is in line with the approval of the amendment to the Audit Act 1957 (Act 62) on July 24, 2024, which, among other things, empowers and expands the existing mandate of the Auditor General in auditing State-owned Enterprises (SOEs) or better known as government-linked companies (GLCs) at the federal and state levels as well as the implementation of audit follow-ups.
According to NAD, the establishment of WGSOEA was approved at the 16th ASOSAI General Assembly on Sept 24, 2024, in New Delhi, India. This working group is an initiative of NAD to strengthen the role of Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) in auditing the governance of SOEs in the Asian region. To date, 11 A
SOSAI member countries such as Japan, Oman, Qatar, and Russia have agreed to join the WGSOEA, while 13 other Asian countries including China, India, Indonesia, and Thailand have expressed interest in joining the working group.
The establishment of the WGFA was approved at the 78th INTOSAI Governing Board Meeting in Cairo, Egypt on Oct 28, 2024, according to NAD.