On 23rd of April, 2012, the 2nd Meeting of the Heads of Supreme Audit Institutions of the participating states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) was held in Shanghai, China. The heads or their representatives of the SAIs of China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan participated in this meeting. Mr. Liu Jiayi, Auditor General of the National Audit Office of China, attends this meeting and addresses at the opening and closing ceremonies.
This meeting consists of two sessions: one is the seminar on the role of SAIs in fighting against corruption and collaborative audits on inter-governmental economic co-operation projects, the other is the working meeting discussing and approving some documents, which are the memorandum on development of cooperation between the Supreme Audit Institutions of the participating states of the SCO, plan of activities in the frame of cooperation between the Supreme Audit Institutions of the participating states of the SCO, and the circular of this meeting.
The participants reached consensus that the auditing institutions should play an active role in fighting corruption, and the future cooperation is with bright future.
"Fighting corruption has become our common responsibility," Liu Jiayi said. According to Liu, the audit institutions function as an 'immune system' in their national economies. They prevent and disclose irregularities, but also safeguard the legitimacy and effectiveness of public budgets, public resources, and the allocation, management, and use of public assets, he said.
Sergey Stepashin, Chairman of the Russian Federation Accounts Chamber, added that working with judicial authorities in fighting corruption is one of his organization's "main tasks". "Due to our knowledge in the sphere of budget control, auditing, banking and finance … we can take certain measures to prevent corruption," he told China Daily through a translator.
Meanwhile, Pakistan and India - both observer states of the SCO - expressed their interest in sharing and learning corruption-fighting practices from the meeting.
"Each state has different history and customs ... So the idea is to learn from the practices adopted by various countries in fighting corruption and evolving good practices," said Mr. Arvind Awasthi, Deputy Comptroller and Auditor General of India.
"We wish to share experiences particularly on how to practice and implement laws relating to anti-corruption... to safeguard the public exchequer, save money, and see the money is spent on the right purposes," said Akhtar Rana, the Auditor-General of Pakistan.