Yemen Observer: http://www.yobserver.com
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Written By: Huda al-Kibsi
Article Date: Jun 28, 2008 - 3:06:52 AM
Mr. Christian Koch
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The Central Organization for Control and Auditing (COCA) is the state supervisory and control body for protecting public funds and property in Yemen. Strengthening COCA is an approach by the German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ) to establish effective financial control and the transparent use of funds in Yemen. In March 2008, the GTZ-project “Support for the Central Organization for Control and Auditing” established a cooperation relationship between COCA and the Audit Court of Berlin to make use of the experiences with the successful support of Audit Institution projects within the German development cooperation.
Mr. Christian Koch, performance audit-expert and director of Audit Court of Berlin is on his second visit to Yemen in order to start the first cooperation activity and conduct a joint workshop on Performance Audits. He spoke about the nature of the cooperation between both Audit Institutions and his visit to Yemen. Following is the full text of the interview:
QUESTION: What is the aim of your visit to the Central Organization for Control and Auditing in Yemen?
KOCH: This is my second visit to Yemen. My first visit was from 23rd November – 3rd December 2007 which aimed to review the status of financial control in Yemen and explore possibilities for cooperation between COCA and the Berlin Court of Audi. The result of my first visit was that there is one big point of cooperation, that is the Performance Audit. My second visit was to conduct a joint workshop on Performance Audit with 30 elected COCA Auditors from the COCA headquarter and the branches like Al-Mukalla, Al-Hodaida, and Socotra.
QUESTION: What do you expect from this Performance Audit workshop?
KOCH: In this first workshop I showed important basics of performance audit to the COCA-auditors. I convey practical and main experiences from the Court of Audit in Berlin. We also give examples from COCA like the experience in the water sector, power energy sector and other infrastructure sectors. During the next twelve months COCA auditors will conduct pilot performance audit in the selected audit units and this will be integral to the next workshop. In the time between the first and second workshops and during the pilot audits, we will assist, give advice and communicate through video conferences and e-mail. In the second workshop at the end of the audit process the ACB will evaluate the audit course and the audit reports and communicates the evaluation results to the COCA-auditors. I can say that it was a good workshop that participants were very interested. There were many questions discussed. I hope we created good basics for COCA to begin with real performance audit.
QUESTION: Why do you think performance audit is important in COCA? KOCH: The full scope of government auditing includes regularity (financial) and Performance Audit. Performance Audit is an independent examination of the efficiency and effectiveness of government undertakings, programs or organizations with due regard to economy, and the aim of leading to improvements. The introduction of Performance Audit is a core organizational objective of COCA. High-quality COCA-Performance Audits aim at the improvement of governmental general conditions in Yemen like in the Water or Electricity Sector and can make a contribution to the improvement of the living conditions of the Yemeni people.
QUESTION: You had a good experience in developing the National Audit Office of Mongolia. Do you expect the same positive results in Yemen? KOCH: In Mongolia there was very good cooperation. The situation of COCA and the National Audit Office of Mongolia are similar and I think it is good that I have experiences from other countries. 70 percent of problems are common ones not only in Yemen but in a lot of other countries. It is important to look for typical problems in Yemen because it is very good choice to make solutions. Of course we are in the beginning of the cooperation and we must look for the progress in the next time. I hope we are in very good way and to have similar good results in Yemen.
QUESTION: Can you give us an overview of the cooperation agreement related to fighting corruption?
KOCH: There will be a second file of cooperation for which I will come in November accompanied by the president of the Audit Court of Berlin. We will be here to explain experiences of the Audit Court of Berlin related to prevention of corruption and we wish to sign the cooperation agreement. Our services are well received and appreciated from COCA and Yemeni government.
QUESTION: How did you find the situation in Yemen?
KOCH: I think it is too early to give a good answer now. But I can say that Yemen is a good access point to Arabia. There are improvements in various areas, especially in the infrastructure sector. But it will require great efforts to open up future perspectives for Yemen’s inhabitants. However, this applies for many developing countries, and for this reason international cooperation is indispensable. The improvement of external financial control is a key instrument to ensure development sustainability in Yemen.