Tuvalu Accords - 3rd SPASAI Congress

Tuvalu, January 1994

Conscious of the common cultural, social, economic, and political relationships of the peoples of the Pacific Island Nations,

Convinced of the need for the Governments to attain their objectives; and the

Necessity for a public audit to ensure the efficient, effective and economic utilisation of public resources;

Members of the South Pacific Association of Supreme Audit Institutions (SPASAI) endorsed the following Accords following SPASAI Congress III which was held in Tuvalu in January 1994:

1. That Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) should be ultimately accountable to the legislature or through Government Ministers to the legislature and not to the Government alone;
2. That while SAIs may advice committees of the legislature, the SAI should not be involved in politics;
3. That the independence of SAIs should be reinforced by the manner of appointment, terms and conditions of service, budgetary allocation, and disclosure of financial interest or personal relationship with clients that may impair the public perception of independence of audit reports; minimum term limitations and conditions of service are recommended to allow for continuous audit independence;
4. That greater accountability and efficiency may be achieved through the decentralisation of operational responsibility and program performance to agency executive management. With respect to financial activities and treasury functions, there is a need for close coordination due to the scarcity of qualified personnel at the executive managerial level;
5. That while internal controls and internal audits are the responsibilities of management, SAI should encourage their implementation;
6. That effective audit may be attained by the SAI taking a pro-active role to identify and report any management, financial, control and performance problems;
7. That where practicable particularly for small island nations, greater benefits result from the coordination and control of information technology systems on a national basis; and
8. That SAI can play a pro-active role in the corporatisation and privatisation of Government agencies to ensure the proper valuation and transfer of public resources, and to ensure that acceptable legislative framework of accountability are put in place for public enterprises.

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