MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines’ audit commission led this year’s meeting of the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (Intosai) Working Group on Public Debt (WGPD) held in Bucharest, Romania.
The hybrid meet last week, led by Chairman Gamaliel Cordoba of the Commission on Audit (CoA), tackled global trends in managing public debt and the role of SAIs.
“This year’s agenda has been carefully structured to foster discussion and collaboration around emerging trends in public debt management and the evolving role of SAIs. We hope to raise awareness of new practices and developments, encourage knowledge sharing, and strengthen cooperation both within and beyond the SAI community,” Cordoba said.
The Romanian Court of Accounts hosted the event.
The participants included officials and experts from the SAIs of Qatar, North Macedonia, Lithuania, Kuwait, Pakistan, China, Thailand, Austria, Brazil, Turkey, Egypt, Georgia, Portugal, Zambia, India, Kenya, Moldova, Seychelles, Jordan, Argentina, and Ukraine.
Experts from the International Monetary Fund also participated in the event.
“Through independent and well-founded audits, we can warn ahead of time about imbalances and contribute to the growth of fiscal discipline,” Mihai Busuioc, president of the Romanian Court of Accounts, said.
The discussions promoted awareness on new and evolving trends and practices that has impact on public debt and debt management, such as climate change and climate finance and its instruments, sustainability reporting, integrating environmental and social governance factors in public debt management and audits and leveraging innovation and advanced technologies in strengthening public debt management and its audit.
The Philippine delegation was joined by Assistant Commissioner Lito Martin of the Professional and Institutional Development Sector, Director Ma. Theresa Ferreros, co-lead of the WGPD technical working group, Ma. Theresa Mariano and April Ann Magpantay, members of the secretariat.
The WGPD is tasked to prepare and publish guidelines for SAIs to encourage proper reporting and sound management of public debt and exchange knowledge with other institutions dealing with public debt issues, among others.
