The Working Group on Common Auditing Standards was founded in 2006 by the Contact Committee with the specific remit “to develop common auditing standards and comparable audit criteria, based on internationally recognised auditing standards applicable in the EU area”.

 

The Working Group focused primarily on increasing SAIs’ understanding of approaches to interpreting and applying international audit standards, with particular reference to identified EU specificities. It took full account of the ongoing work of the Professional Standards Committee and Sub-Committees set up by INTOSAI to develop ISSAIs, and based its work on the most relevant common auditing standards. It acted as a professional forum where audit results, experiences and case studies were collected, presented and compiled.

 

As a result, the Working Group produced information documents on SAIs' practices in auditing EU funds/policies within the framework of INTOSAI standards, namely a “mapping exercise” related to SAIs’ mandates and audit activities, a document on “compliance audit”, and a document on “performance audit”, each of them introduced by a preamble.

 

This initiative contributed to further enhancing the cooperation between SAIs in the auditing and improving accountability of EU funds, at national and Community levels, and providing EU SAIs with examples of practice on interpreting and applying international audit standards in the EU context. The Contact Committee decided to close down the Working Group in October 2010.

 

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