Indonesia-Malaysia Supreme Audit Agencies Extend Cooperation

Jakarta (Antara Bali) - Indonesia's Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) and Malaysia's National Audit Department (JAN) agreed to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on public sector inspection.

The agreement was inked by Chairman of BPK RI Harry Azhar Azis and Deputy Auditor General of Malaysia Khalid Khan Abdullah Khan in Denpasar, Bali, on Sunday.

"The MoU aims to strengthen, improve, and develop cooperation between the two audit institutions for public sector inspection on the basis of equality and mutual benefits," Azis noted in a statement received by Antara, Sunday.

The cooperation covers some activities, such as the exchange of information as well as practices of procedure and methodology for public sector audit through training, parallel examination, and study visits.

In addition, the cooperation includes a capacity building program for the auditing of financial statements as well as performance and compliance, referring to the international standards to improve organizational, institutional, and individual competencies of both countries' audit agencies.

Cooperation between Indonesia's BPK and Malaysia's JAN were initiated since the first MoU was signed in 2007 in Mexico.

During the nine years of cooperation, both agencies have contributed to several significant outputs, such as sharing knowledge on the development of forestry inspection management, GIS and GPS, development of e-audit, inspection of water management system, management of Hajj, development of e-learning at training centers, as well as the development of human resources.

As part of the bilateral cooperation, a day before the signing ceremony on Feb 11, a technical meeting was held in Bali to improve the competency of Indonesian and Malaysian auditors in the area of Sustainable Development Goals, inspection of palm oil plantations, as well as economic development in the borders areas. (WDY)