On May 21-23 of this year, in the Austrian city of Salzburg, a meeting was held on the topic of “Additional values for Internal Audit”, with the support of Public Expenditure Management Peer Assisted Learning Network - Internal Audit Community of Practice (PEMPAL IACOP) and the Austrian Federal Ministry of Finance.

Participants in the mentioned working meeting were the  head of the Public Internal Control Department – Harmonization Center of the Ministry of Georgia – Giuli Chkuaseli, the representative of the department – Eleonora Lomineishvili, as well as Guram Dumbadze, the head of the internal audit unit and the administration of government of Georgia.

During the working meeting, participants discussed the important topics for internal audit, such as:

-          Increasing the influence of the internal audit report in the public sector, by acquiring additional value;

-          Digitalization of internal audit data, with the use of existing best practices and challenges;

-          Updated global internal audit standards and its impact on the public sector;

-          Effective strategies for branding the internal audit profession and promoting a knowledge sharing platform.

The heads of the internal audit units of the Austrian Federal Ministry of Finance and Education, Science and Research informed the participants of the meeting about the services of the internal audit units in Austria at both federal and local levels.

Additionally, topics such as the importance of the internal audit report and the acquisition of additional value for it were discusses from a managerial perspective. The head of the Federal Internal Audit Unit of Belgium, the representative of the Internal Audit Service of the European Commission, the head of the Department of International Relations of the Dutch National Academy of Finance and Economics and the local advisor of the EU and Twinning project in North Macedonia shared their opinions and approaches in this regard.

On the second day of the meeting, the main topic of discussion was the digitization of internal audit data, within the framework of which a case study of Austria was presented, various programs, methods and solutions implemented in practice by the internal audit of the Federal Ministry of Finance of Austria were discussed.

The third day of the meeting was devoted to the updated global standards of internal audit and its impact on the public sector.

The head of the Harmonization Center, Giuli Chkuaseli, spoke on the mentioned topic in the format of a panel discussion and shared information about the activities and approaches planned in Georgia for the purpose of introducing global standards in the public sector.

In the final part of the meeting, the participants discussed the main topics of the future strategy of the internal audit practice community, which will cover all important topics of internal audit and internal control, taking into account the challenges in the public sector. 

PEMPAL unites 23 countries of Europe and Central Asia and is an international platform for sharing professional experience and best practices of harmonization centers, established by the World Bank.

It should be noted that the head of the Harmonization Center of the Ministry of Finance of Georgia, Giuli Chkuaseli, is a member of the Executive Committee of PEMPAL IACOP and the leader of the internal control working group, while the Deputy Head of the Harmonization Center, Irma Gelantia-Akhvlediani, is an alternate member of the Executive Committee of PEMPAL IACOP and the challenger of the Harmonization Center Co-leader of the working group.