The main document of INCOSAI XXIII, the Moscow Declaration, has been adopted with the majority of the Congress participants supporting it.
All the delegates stressed the high level of preparation of the key document of the INCOSAI, its compliance with the basic principles of supreme audit institutions, namely transparency and independence.
'We wanted the Declaration to be as instrumental as possible, so that it could help every SAI in promoting new methods and instruments,' Aleksei Kudrin, the INTOSAI Chair, said upon presenting the main outcome of the Congress to the delegates.
The Moscow Declaration is based on the main conclusions of INCOSAI XXIII. It outlines the major directions for the future development of public audit:
• ensuring independent external monitoring of the achievement of goals agreed upon on the national level as well as SDGs;
• efficiently using opportunities offered by technological progress;
• strengthening the role of SAIs’ work with a view to improve transparency and accountability of public administration.
In accordance with the Moscow Declaration supreme audit institutions agreed to adhere to 10 basic principles:
• promoting more efficient, transparent, and informative accountability of the government for its outcomes;
• developing a comprehensive approach to audit for attaining national goals and priorities;
• preparing recommendations for the government on important strategic issues of public administration;
• promoting the principle of accessibility and openness of data, the openness of source code and algorithms;
• employing data analytics in audits;
• advancing the culture of experimental thinking;
• managing systemic risks in public administration;
• training auditors of the future;
• searching for ways to promote inclusiveness;
• establishing efficient collaboration with auditees and broadening the cooperation with the academia and the society as a whole.