On 14-23, October, 2008, the AASOSAI Seminar on Environmental Audit was held by CNAO in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province. At the opening ceremony, Mr. Liu Jiayi, Auditor General of CNAO, Chairman of ASOSAI and Chairman of ASOSAI WGEA, delivered a keynote speech on Strengthen environmental audit and promote sustainable development. Mr. Lv Zushan, Governor of Zhejiang People s Government and Mr. Mihkel Oviir, Chairman of INTOSAI WGEA and Auditor General of Estonia also presented themselves on the opening ceremony presided by Mr. Dong Dasheng, Deputy Auditor General of CNAO. It is the seventh similar International Audit Seminar hosted by CNAO.
At the opening ceremony, Mr. Liu Jiayi express his warmly welcome to all the participants and he addressed that with the more and more serious situation of resource environmental, governmental audit, as the immunity system of the national economy, should take the responsibilities to discovered and disclosed the problems and risks on resource environmental protection so as to make contribution to the global environmental protection and security of resource and energy.
He further stressed that, in recent years, CNAO carried out a series of environmental audits on promoting the recovery environmental pollution, environmental construction and sustainable development of resource which promote the saving of national energy resource, environmental protection and the implementation of sustainable development strategy.
In the coming future, CNAO will construct audit mode audit on environmental audit and estimate system with Chinese characteristic to secure the resource environment safety. Mr. Liu expressed his hope that the mutual communication and knowledge exchange can promote the development of environmental in Asian countries to realize the more harmonious living environmental in Asia.
Mr. Lv Zushan briefly introduced the history, culture, economy and environmental protection in Hangzhou and he hope all the participants can observe the effort China made to protect its environment through the beautiful scenery of the city of Hangzhou.
Mr. Mihkel Oviir expressed his thanks to CNAO for holding this seminar. He said the extraordinary destroy brought by the 5.12 Wenchuan Earthquake would further awake the consciousness on environmental protection. He believed that by discussion and knowledge exchange, the function of audit on environmental protection will be better exerted which no doubt will promote the development of environmental protection.
A total of 64 participants from 31 members of ASOSAI and SAI of Hong Kong and Macau attended the above said seminar. They conduct warmly discussion and exchange on two topics, namely Audit on climate change and air pollution prevention and Audit on nature resource development and protection and sustainable energy . During the seminar, Mr. Dong Dasheng introduced political framework and government audit in China, Mr. Zhoujian, Vice Minister of Environmental Protection, introduced the environmental protection work in China and Mr. Mihkel Oviir introduced the most update information on INTOSAI WGEA.
The successful holding of the seminar will further strengthen the cooperation on environmental audit among Asian countries and promote the carrying out of environmental audit in their respective SAIs.
Linking:
1. ASOSAI WGEA
After the UN Environment and Development Congress in 1992, to promote the role of audit on environmental protection, to help SAIs to develop Environmental Audit Guidance and to communicate and cooperate, Working Group on Environmental Audit (WGEA) has been established by INTOSAI. For further promotion of environmental audit in different regions, the regional WGEAs were set up at the 1998 16th INCOSAI which was held in Uruguay.
In the October 2000, the ASOSAI WGEA was firstly established on the 8th ASOSAI Assembly held in Thailand, as one of the INTOSAI WGEA regional members. At the first working meeting of ASOSAI WEGA, the National Audit Office of China was selected as the chairman.
2. International cooperation of CNAO on Environmental Audit
As the Chairman of ASOSAI WEGA, CNAO made great contribution on organizing research on environmental audit among ASOSAI members, strengthening the communication with INTOSAI WGEA, attending international activities, which includes developing the website of ASOSAI WGEA, hosting ASOSAI seminars on environmental audit, coordinating cooperation on environmental audit with ASOSAI community, participating INTOSAI WGEA meetings and training activities and so on.
3. Environmental Audit in China
During the reforming of governmental agencies in 1998, CNAO strengthened its function on environmental audit by establishing a specific functional department namely Department of Agriculture, Resource and Environmental Protection. The similar agencies were also set up at CNAO s 18 resident audit offices and audit institutions of 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities.
