{"id":11882,"date":"2024-09-25T04:59:38","date_gmt":"2024-09-24T23:29:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=11882"},"modified":"2025-10-11T11:12:37","modified_gmt":"2025-10-11T05:42:37","slug":"what-are-supreme-audit-institutions-sais","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/what-are-supreme-audit-institutions-sais\/","title":{"rendered":"What are Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs)?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><strong>About Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs):<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>They are <strong>public oversight institutions<\/strong> responsible for the a<strong>udit of government revenue and expenditure.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>They are a critical link in a country\u2019s accountability chain.<\/li>\n<li>By <strong>scrutinizing public financial management<\/strong> and reporting, they provide assurance that resources are used as prescribed.<\/li>\n<li>Most SAIs <strong>derives their mandate from<\/strong> the <strong>constitution and\/or legislation.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>SAIs <strong>undertakes financial audits<\/strong> of organizations\u2019 accounting procedures and financial statements, and compliance audits reviewing the legality of transactions made by the audited body.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>They <strong>also conduct performance audits<\/strong> to scrutinize the efficiency, effectiveness, or economy of government\u2019s undertakings.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The independence of the SAI from the executive bodies<\/strong> it audits is fundamental to its role in holding governments to account and building trust between the organs of the state and society.<\/li>\n<li>The <a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/upsc-exam\/comptroller-and-auditor-generalcag\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG)<\/strong><\/a> and the <strong>Indian Audit and Accounts Department (IAAD)<\/strong> functioning under him <strong>constitute the SAI of India.\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Nearly every SAI from<\/strong> a <strong>United Nations-member country<\/strong> is a <strong>member of the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions<\/strong> (INTOSAI).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Key Facts about International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI):<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It is a <strong>voluntary, non-political organization<\/strong> that works to <strong>promote auditing standards<\/strong>, <strong>good governance of SAIs<\/strong>, and <strong>SAI independence<\/strong>, among other work.<\/li>\n<li>The INTOSAI was founded in 1953 and has grown from the original 34 countries to a <strong>membership of over 192 SAIs.\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>It operates as an umbrella organization for the external government audit community.<\/li>\n<li>INTOSAI has numerous committees and working groups which examine issues of particular relevance to SAIs, such as <strong>developing professional standards for public sector auditing,<\/strong> knowledge sharing, and capacity building.<\/li>\n<li>It has <strong>special consultative status with<\/strong> the Economic and Social Council <strong>(ECOSOC) of the United Nations.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Structure:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The <strong>International Congresses of Supreme Audit Institutions<\/strong> (INCOSAI) is the <strong>supreme organ<\/strong> of INTOSAI and is composed of all the members. On a triennial basis, it holds regular meetings, which is chaired by the hosting SAI.<\/li>\n<li>The <strong>INTOSAI Governing Board<\/strong> meets annually to <strong>provide strategic leadership,<\/strong> stewardship, and continuity of INTOSAI activities between INCOSAI.<\/li>\n<li>The <strong>CAG of India<\/strong> is a <strong>member of the Governing Board<\/strong> of the INTOSAI.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><strong>Q1<\/strong>: What is auditing?<\/h3>\n<p>An audit is the examination of the financial report of an organisation &#8211; as presented in the annual report &#8211; by someone independent of that organisation. The financial report includes a balance sheet, an income statement, a statement of changes in equity, a cash flow statement, and notes comprising a summary of significant accounting policies and other explanatory notes.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/theprint.in\/india\/president-murmu-emphasizes-role-of-supreme-audit-institutions-in-public-funds-integrity\/2281729\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">President Murmu emphasizes role of Supreme Audit Institutions in public funds integrity<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Supreme Audit Institutions are public oversight institutions responsible for the audit of government revenue and expenditure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":11883,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-11882","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}