Baku is hosting the annual meeting of the Working Group on Environmental Auditing (WGEA) of the European Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (EUROSAI) on Thursday.
According to Report, the event is organized by the Chamber of Accounts of Azerbaijan.
Opening the meeting with an introductory speech, Chairman of the Chamber of Accounts Vugar Gulmammadov emphasized the importance of his institution hosting the event. According to the chairman, today's meeting increases the chamber's responsibility and necessitates more effective cooperation with the participants to realize the expectations from this event.
Furthermore, he stated that the role of supreme audit institutions in overseeing public finance management leads to global challenges becoming audit topics, in addition to traditional activities: "One of the foremost among these topics is the management of natural resources and the environment. The implementation of this activity requires the allocation of large funds, which makes the participation of supreme audit institutions inevitable in ensuring the purposeful use of these funds, as well as transparency and accountability."
The chairman then noted that according to the relevant decree of the country's president, 2024 has been declared the "Green World Solidarity Year" in Azerbaijan, and COP29 is scheduled to be held in Baku in November of this year.
More than 50 representatives from supreme audit institutions of 19 countries are participating in the meeting. The event will include discussions on topics such as "Supporting disaster preparedness," "Understanding extreme events, adaptation and impact reduction ideas," "Coordinated audit in combating desertification, forest and grassland fires," "Fire protection in national parks," and more.
WGEA was established by the decision of the 4th EUROSAI Congress held in 1999. The main goal of the group is to promote and support professional cooperation and encourage the exchange of knowledge and experience. The decision to hold this year's meeting in Baku was made at last year's annual meeting held in Prague, Czechia.