Amman, July 13 (Petra) -- President of the Audit Bureau, Asem Haddad, announced on Tuesday the launch of a twinning project with the Supreme Audit Office in Poland (NIK) entitled "Strengthening the Capacities of the Audit Bureau of Jordan".

Haddad stated, during the Kick-off event, that: "This project comes from the generous support of the European Union in cooperation with the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation, who have been our partners in the success of previous twinning projects. The project aims at enhancing the institutional capacities of the Bureau and the efficiency of its staff, to keep pace with the best international practices and to benefit from the expertise of its peer, the Supreme Audit Institution of Poland".

He added that this project, with an estimated budget of two million euros and a timeframe of two years, is a fruit of the exceptional relations between the Government of Jordan, the European Union and the friendly State of Poland.

He also explained that the Project consists of three main components, which are: applying the approach of risk-based audit and the comprehensive audit (financial and compliance); improving quality assurance procedures; and applying and improving IT audit procedures using CAATs and audit of incomes.

Haddad also underlined that this Project is the third twinning project for the Audit Bureau, the first was implemented with the consortium of the British and German SAIs in 2006 and the second was with the consortium of Spanish, Dutch and Estonian SAIs in 2012.

He also pointed out that since he assumed his duties as President of the Audit Bureau in 2019, he has set forth a vision for improving and developing the Bureau to keep pace with the Government e-Services in parallel with the Kingdom's celebration of the Centennial, as this project comes in line with the Bureau's plan for Digital Transformation for the years 2020-2022 and the Strategic Plan of the Bureau for the years 2021-2023.

On her side, the Ambassador of the European Union to the Kingdom, Maria Hadjitheodosiou, expressed her pleasure to attend the project launch ceremony, stressing that the European Union values the twinning project, and considers it as a tool that facilitates peer support between public administrations, as the essence of twinning depends on the principle of learning by conducting and sharing best practices.

Hadjitheodosiou noted that strengthening the audit capacity of the Audit Bureau with the participation of the European Union on public spending is essential in managing public money, so that effective and transparent public spending will achieve savings that can be invested in other priority areas in Jordan; such as education, health and economic growth; which is why we should all be proud that this twinning project may contribute to the prosperity of Jordan.

For his part, Marian Banas, President of the Supreme Audit Office in Poland, said that he is delighted to be in the Kingdom to participate in the launch of the twinning project with the Audit Bureau of Jordan. He added that the relations between Poland and Jordan are distinguished on various levels; economic, touristic, educational and security, referring to the phone call between His Majesty King Abdullah II and the Polish President last April, which stresses the solid relationship between the two friendly countries.

Banas stressed that this project comes as a culmination of the efforts exerted by the three parties, considering Jordan as one of the developed countries that is open to its regional and international surroundings, noting that this project will contribute to raising the Bureau's audit capacities in accordance with the best international practices based on INTOSAI standards.

He noted that the role of the SAI is to ensure that the money is spent lawfully, efficiently and effectively, as it is the money of the people not the government, in order to ensure a better life for citizens. He extended his thanks to the European Union Delegation to the Kingdom, as well as to the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation, and to all staff in the two friendly Audit Institutions, for their distinguished role in bringing this project into existence.

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