The Supreme Audit Office of Poland is the leader of the works of the international team which is revising ISSAI 30 - INTOSAI Code of Ethics. The team is composed of 14 members: the Supreme Audit Institutions of Poland (project leader), Albania, Chile, Hungary, Indonesia, Kuwait, Mexico, Namibia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States, and the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) as an observer.
Auditors are facing entirely new challenges nowadays. INTOSAI stands in a position that these challenges should be reflected in the updated code of ethics. ”Professional ethics is one of the pillars of our work. It determines its quality and is the basis of public trust that each auditor should enjoy”, emphasised NIK President Krzysztof Kwiatkowski.
The team under NIK’s leadership is trying to develop a code that could be used in every possible situation. ”It is hard work since we would like the Code to be as universal as possible at the same time”, says Advisor to NIK President Jacek Jezierski. Besides, the document is intended to comprise application guidelines that should be useful for all INTOSAI members, whose cultures, legal environments and traditions are often completely different.
That is why, the team is trying to develop a framework document. It is supposed to include key requirements that should be developed and further specified in individual member states. The Code should be up-to-date, universal and compliant with other INTOSAI standards. At the same time, Supreme Audit Institutions of individual countries are encouraged to develop their own codes of ethics, tailored to their needs.
The draft of the updated code is scheduled to be ready by autumn 2015, when it will be presented for approval to the Steering Committee of the INTOSAI Professional Standards Committee. Then, in accordance with the procedure of developing and reviewing INTOSAI standards, the draft will be exposed for public comment. The final version of the revised INTOSAI Code of Ethics should be ready for the INTOSAI Congress in Abu Dhabi in December 2016.
