Positive assessment of the IBAN’s 2015 activities
Every year in spring, the International Board of Auditors for NATO (IBAN) prepares an Annual Activities Report to be presented to the North Atlantic Council (NAC). This report, along with the comments of the Competent National Audit Bodies (CNAB), is presented to the Resource Planning and Policy Board (RPPB) prior to being presented to the NAC.
The CNAB meeting was held on 10 May 2016. Twenty Supreme Audit Institutions were represented at the table: Albania, Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Turkey and the United States. The meeting was chaired by the Greek Supreme Audit Court, represented by Ms Anna Papapanagiotou.
CNAB members were very positive about the IBAN’s Annual Activities Report and congratulated the IBAN on its 2015 achievements – specifically with respect to:
- Transparency and the increased number of IBAN reports that are now accessible by the public on the NATO website;
- The IBAN’s focus on performance audit and the increased number of audit reports issued despite limited resources; and
- The IBAN’s meeting of the 2015 financial audit deadlines (which has significantly improved over the past years).
Members also stated that they would like to see NATO governing bodies (the NAC and RPPB) increase their follow-up on IBAN recommendations and reports in order to hold NATO bodies accountable for improving financial management and reporting. They also repeated the need for NATO to consider establishing a NATO-wide audit committee.
The IBAN expressed its appreciation for all of the comments received and the continuing support of the CNAB.