By Sidi Mohamed
DOHA: Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani opened the 5th joint conference between European Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions and Arab Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions (EUROSAI-ARABOSAI).
Addressing the event, attended by a number of heads of supreme audit institutions, representatives of international organisations and guests noted Qatar’s well-placed regulatory measures had helped the country overcome the global financial crisis and its implications The country launched a number of initiatives to improve the efficiency of banking and financial sector. It helped the country to better manage the aftermath of global meltdown by ring fencing the country’s financial market.
“The hosting of forums like this reflects Qatari support to meetings which discuss latest developments and changes taking place in the financial world”, the premier noted. He said Qatar has already established a special department for financial stability to enhance the role of independent audit bureau as the highest monitoring body.
The effective roles being played by supreme audit institutions of EUROSAI-ARABOSAI will help transfer of knowledge and experiences to the financial world to improve its audit institutions’ efficiency.
The prime minister called for adoption of policies and measures that grants protection for the global financial, commerce and economic systems, in addition to applying strict monitoring system for global economic indexes to avoid financial crisis in the future.
The Forum is the outcome of the ongoing constructive cooperation between the organizations of EUROSAI and ARABOSAI said Sheikh Bandar bin Mohamed bin Saud Al Thani, President, Audit Bureau, Qatar. It is a clear translation to the efforts of the two parties to enhance professional and institutional cooperation. He added: ‘we are keen to monitor public money and our aim is to promote our monitoring bodies in line with the latest development in different audit institutions.”
More than economic reasons, the systemic failures like lack of transparency and corruptions were the main reasons that failed many countries to weather the storm created by the global financial crisis, he noted.
He explained that the aim of this forum is to exchange information, experiences and practices to improve the performances of audit institutions in the member countries, besides discussing future plans of audit institutions. We hope these discussions will help predict possible financial risks and to set up alerting system and take measures to avoid repetition of the 2008 crisis.
Representatives of several Arab and European countries are participating in the conference which will continue for three days.
The Peninsula
