Today's Edition
JUMA AL NUAIMI (ABU DHABI)
Participants in the fourth Annual Meeting of the International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions’ (INTOSAI) Working Group Working Group on Impact of Science and Technology on Auditing (WGISTA), chaired by the UAE’s Supreme Audit Institution (SAI), emphasised the vital role played by the group in enhancing the auditing process in the public sector by employing modern technologies such as artificial intelligence and cloud technologies.
They stressed the need for the optimal use of technology and to benefit from information technology in carrying out oversight operations and analysing big data, including technical transformation in the use of artificial intelligence in the field of financial auditing.
The participants pointed out that effectively harnessing the potential of modern technology contributes significantly to enabling and achieving performance efficiency in daily work.
Moreover, the use of advanced technology, namely artificial intelligence, and digitisation techniques enhance the role of oversight bodies in terms of financial oversight and accountability, the meeting heard.
Employing these technologies meet the requirements of oversight work, contributing to the acceleration of the decision-making process, decision implementation, and raising the level of production, which will provide services in record time, they said.
The meeting witnessed a review of technological developments, and an environmental scan to determine the capabilities of the supreme financial oversight and accounting body to keep pace with emerging technologies and the feasibility of auditing in the public sector.
It also reviewed the impact of automation and artificial intelligence, and discussed the use of image processing programmes and unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) to provide analytical insights during auditing, and many other related topics.
Sumaya Al Hammadi, a member representing the UAE in WGISTA, said that the meeting will discuss how the supreme financial oversight and accounting bodies across the world can make use of technological advancements in protecting public funds in their countries, and discover and combat illegitimate practices to achieve one common goal, which is to preserve public money.
“This sector is continuously evolving in terms of technology, and our role is to keep pace with these strategic developments, not only to ensure the methodologies used in our current time but also those that will be suitable for our present and for facing the future challenges that the sector may generally encounter,” Al Hammadi added.
