Uniformity Of The UN External Audit Reports
JAKARTA, BPK Public Relations - The Audit Board of the Republic of Indonesia (BPK) participated in the 36th Meeting of the Technical Group as part of the External Auditors Panel of the United Nations - the Specialized Agencies and the IAEA. The meeting was held virtually on Monday by UN Board and Panel of External Auditors Secretariat at the UN Headquarters, New York, USA.
The technical meeting was held in order to share experiences on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on audits conducted on UN agencies and their strategic issues. At the meeting, BPK had the opportunity to address two important issues.
Secretary General Bahtiar Arif conveys the first issue of the impact of COVID-19 on financial statement disclosures and financial reports arising from audits – case study in IAEA, on which BPK shares its experiences in conducting audits on the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) during the pandemic.
The restriction policy applied due to the pandemic has significant effects on the disclosure of financial statements. Changes in the global economic situation also affect the presentation of financial reports and audit reports, especially on accounts relying on economic situations such as cash deficits, investment income, and After Service Health Insurance (ASHI) liabilities.
Uniformity of External Audit Reports in UN Organizations: Challenges and Best Practice becomes the second issue presented by BPK, as represented by Deputy in Charge of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) External Audit Team, Yudi Ramdan Budiman. The issue is interesting since audit reporting is very important in the audit process. In the UN, there are two types of audit reports, namely the short-form report and the long-form report (LFR). In practice, however, there is no standard ruling the form and the content that should be included in the LFR. For this reason, BPK seeks to raising the issue to develop a best practice. It is important to unify the form and the content of the LFR to improve its quality. The increasing quality of the LFR will be eventually beneficial for stakeholders – those charged with governance (TCWG), member states, and other external auditors.
On this occasion, the BPK was also represented by Director of the Public Relations and International Cooperation Bureau, Selvia Vivi Devianti, Deputy Director of the International Cooperation, Kusuma Ayu Rusnasanti, IMO External Audit Team Technical Controller, Nanik Rahayu, IAEA External Audit Team Technical Controller, Cipto Nugroho, IMO External Audit Team Leader, Endra Noviandy Sujadi, and IAEA External Audit Team Leader, Uthar Mukthadir.
Apart from BPK that represents Indonesia, there were other UN external auditors from 13 other countries, namely Chile, China, the Philippines, Ghana, India, the UK, Italy, Germany, Canada, France, Russia, Switzerland, and Tanzania.