The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Office of the Auditor General of Norway are to cooperate on good governance in developing countries

Minister of International Development Erik Solheim and Auditor General Jørgen Kosmo today signed an agreement related to the efforts of the Office of the Auditor General to strengthen supreme audit institutions in developing countries and new democracies.

The Office of the Auditor General has established a dedicated unit that is to assist in the fight against corruption and the development of good governance by strengthening public audit capacity in selected developing countries and new democracies.

The aim of the agreement is to ensure that the development cooperation efforts of the Office of the Auditor General support Norway’s foreign and development policy aims. The provisions of the agreement include that the Office of the Auditor General has to give priority to countries in which Norway is already cooperating with the national authorities, or in which Norway’s existing involvement makes it desirable to strengthen public auditing.

- We know from experience how important it is to have a well-functioning public audit system. I believe it is very important that developing countries have strong and independent institutions that can monitor and check that state revenues are being used as intended. Over the years, the Office of the Auditor General of Norway has built up significant expertise in assisting the supreme audit institutions of other countries. I am very confident that many national supreme audit institutions will be glad to receive help from Norway’s Office of the Auditor General to strengthen and improve their own organisations, said Mr Solheim.

The Government has made the fight against international corruption a development cooperation priority area. Support aimed at strengthening local supreme audit institutions is part of this. This year, Norway is allocating USD 2,35 million to the INTOSAI (International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions) Development Initiative (IDI).

“The principal aim of the development efforts of the Office of the Auditor General of Norway is to assist in the fight against corruption and the development of good governance through capacity-building in supreme audit institutions. Strengthening national supreme audit institutions also ensures better auditing of Norwegian development assistance funds in recipient countries,” said Auditor General Jørgen Kosmo.

The full Memorandom of Understanding between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Office of the Auditor General is available on the website (only in Norwegian for the moment).

Press contacts:

Ministry of Foreign Affairs:
Information Adviser Wera Helstrøm, tel. (+47) 22 24 39 44/99 40 93 23.

The Office of the Auditor General of Norway:
Acting Director General Øivind Berg Larsen, tel. (+47) 22 24 11 89/98 00 30 91.