The First Senior Officials Meeting of the SAI20 Engagement Group under India’s G20 Presidency was held in Guwahati on March 13 and 14 respectively. Girish Chandra Murmu, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India, as the Chair of the Supreme Audit Institutions-20 (SAI20) Engagement Group, led the deliberations.
In his opening address, Murmu said that SAI20 Senior Officials Meeting 2023 is a symbol of global cooperation and collective efforts of the Supreme Audit Institutions of the member G20 countries, to ensure inclusive development and wellbeing of all. He said that the world was seized of multiple challenges, like sustainable development and climate change. He said that climate change and its impact on biodiversity and food security are emerging challenges threatening the sustainable development goals. He emphasised the need for the global community to address these problems to ensure a secure future for all.
While recognizing the importance of sustainability, growth and role of emerging technologies, he said that the SAI20, priority areas – “Blue Economy” and “Responsible Artificial Intelligence” represents the new-age opportunities and concerns and these underline the need for genuine cooperation. The CAG told the gathering that to understand the global experiences and initiatives and to know how external stakeholders view the role of audit in these areas, his team had interacted with many domain experts from Government and the private sector and conducted seminars on these themes in February.
Representatives of 39 national and international delegates from G20 member SAIs, guest SAIs and World Bank as invited organisations took part in the deliberations. SAIs of Australia, Brazil, Egypt, Indonesia, Oman, Republic of Korea, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, and UAE were also present in the two day programme.
