Greenlines Newsletter

After the 6th meeting of the INTOSAI Working Group on Environmental Auditing in
Cape Town …………..

Dear colleagues,When I returned to the Netherlands after our meeting in Cape Town, it was immediately back to the "normal" activities of the Netherlands Court of Audit. My main activity was to publish the results of our annual regularity audits of all ministries. This took place on the 17th of May. This year it was a special occasion for me and for the Netherlands Court of Audit as a whole, because for the first time in the history of the our Court of Audit I was invited by the President of the Lower House to present the results directly in parliament. The minister of Finance submitted the "Government Accounts1999" and I submitted our report on those Accounts. The Lower House has plans to make the third Wednesday of May from now on the "Accounts Day". So the 21st century started well for us. During my activities, however, often my thoughts went back to our very successful meeting in Cape Town. It was the biggest meeting of our Working Group so far, with 37 delegates from 22 SAI's attending. As intended, the meeting proved to be an important point in time for the further implementation of our strategy of regionalisation. I think the meeting has also been successful in laying out the path toward the XVIIth INCOSAI meeting, which will be held next year in Seoul, Republic of Korea. A number of issues still have to be resolved, but in general I think we are firmly 'en route' to Seoul. I would like to take this opportunity to again thank the Office of the Auditor General of South Africa, Mr. Fakie, for their hospitality, and for their fantastic organisation of the meeting! In this Green Lines we will look back and look forward at the same time. We will look back to the highlights of the meeting in Cape Town, and we will look forward to a number of activities that will be undertaken in the near future.

Saskia J Stuiveling

Results of the meeting in Cape Town

The agenda for the meeting was extensive, but we succeeded in discussing all issues: the results of the regionalisation process for each of the regions, the draft INTOSAI booklet "Guidance on conducting audits of activities with an environmental perspective", the discussion paper on "Sustainable development", the draft discussion paper "International Environmental Accords to Audit", the presentation of the Working Group at the XVIIth INCOSAI and the organisational shape of the Working Group after 2001. Apart from these issues to discuss, there was also an environmental excursion during the meeting and, of course, the Poster Session. The Working Group took the following decisions:

There are three areas where the Chair expects some input from all Working Group members:- Sustainable development: All members can send examples to be included in the paper by email to Joe Cavanagh (NAO) before 1 July, 2000;- International Environmental Accords: More SAIs are needed to make an audit proposal. Also, SAIs that have already carried out audits of international environmental accords are requested to send their audit proposal or planning document to Mr. Floris Roijackers (Secretariat);- Presentation in Seoul: We are looking for volunteers to make translations into French and German.

Report on Environmental Auditing to the INTOSAI Governing Board

As you know, in the week of 22 May 2000, a meeting of the INTOSAI Governing Board was held in Seoul, Republic of Korea. At the meeting Mr. Pieter Zevenbergen, member of the Board of the Netherlands Court of Audit, reported on the most important activities of our Working Group during the last year. When writing this report, Mr. Zevenbergen had just returned from Seoul. He informed us that our proposals to the INTOSAI Governing Board, i.e. to present the draft booklet Booklet "Guidance on conducting audits of activities with and Environmental perspective" as an INTOSAI document, and our presentation for the INCOSAI Seoul next year, have been accepted. So far so good!

Coming up…..

During the summer period, we will contact you by sending you the following documents that were developed directly after the meeting in Cape Town:

• the draft minutes of the meeting
• a new proposal of the Chair on the future of the Working Group

We would like to ask you to look at these documents carefully, and then reply to us with your remarks and/or questions as soon as possible. That will ensure that we will be able to process all the information in time. Furthermore, we are preparing a little booklet that includes an overview of the Posters that were presented at the Cape Town meeting. We will send this booklet to all our members. It will provide you with a handy overview on the mandate of the member SAIs with respect to Environmental Auditing, and an indication of the activities all of us are undertaking right now! 

Under construction: the Website of the Working Group

The secretariat is currently in the process of revising the website of the Working Group on Environmental Auditing on www.rekenkamer.nl/ea The work on the new website will be carried out throughout the summer period. All the documents that are related to the meeting in Cape Town will be placed on the "old" website. It will stay "on the air" during this period, but will not be updated anymore until the new website is launched. This should happen at some time after the summer period. We will keep you informed. 

Third Questionnaire on Environmental Auditing

Some time ago the third questionnaire on environmental auditing was sent out to all INTOSAI members. The final date to submit the results was set at 1 June 2000. So far, however, we received only a fraction of the questionnaires back. If you have not yet submitted the results, we kindly request that you do so as soon as possible. This is of course especially the case for Working Group members!

Reminder: how to stay informed on Environmental Accords

In the previous Green Lines we gave an overview of websites that could be useful if you want to stay informed on international environmental accords. As a reminder, we list some of the interesting addresses on the web:

• The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) publishes the newsletter Synergies in which updates are given on environmental treaties that are UNEP- and UN-administered (www.unep.ch/conventions).

• Environment House News is an interesting periodical that contains many articles on issues relating to Environmental Accords. It is published by the International Environment House in Geneva (http://www.environmenthouse.ch)/.

• The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) publishes a newsletter with much information on IMO-administered treaties (http://www.imo.org)/.

Exhibition of Posters

The Netherlands Court of Audit has organized an exhibition of the environmental auditing posters that were discussed during the Poster Session in Cape Town. The exhibition has ended now. If a SAI is also interested in using the posters for an exhibition in their own institution, please let us know, and we will send the posters to you! 

List of delegates and SAIs attending the meeting 

E-mail addresses of representatives, 12 April, 2000

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Homepage-addresses of SAIs attending the meeting

* The list is not complete. It is our intention to present a complete list of all websites in the next Green Lines

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Homepage-addresses of Working Groups