Comptroller General of India and Auditor General of Maldives have signed a memorandum of understanding to strengthen the audit process of public finance.

The MoU was signed by Girish Chandra Murmu, CAG of India and Hussain Niyazy, Auditor General of Maldives in Male on Sunday.

CAG of India and Auditor General of Maldives have decided to develop and strengthen respective institution’s professional capacity and improve methodologies in the field of audit of public finance, an official release said on Monday.

                The MoU also aims at exchanging information in the field of public sector audit between the two countries.

                Both parties also agreed to conduct training programmes in their respective countries for their staff on a need basis and explore other means of capacity development support, and cooperate on mutually beneficial areas.

Sustainable development is at the forefront of the partnership between the two SAIs (Supreme Audit Institutions), Murmu said.

He highlighted the importance of judicious use of resources and sustainability for future generations that have given rise to the concept of Natural Resource Accounting (NRA), which is a crucial element of sustainable development, the release noted.

NRA provides an outline of resource bases, the pace of usage with an eye on their sustainability and embeds environmental aspects into the economic indices.

India being a signatory to the Environmental Accounting efforts of the UN has committed to monitor 25 environment-related targets with particular attention being paid to target no 15.9 related with Environmental-Economic Accounting, the CAG said further.

“This target envisages to integrate, by 2020, the ecosystem and biodiversity values into national and local planning, development processes, poverty reduction strategies and accounts,” Murmu said.

SAI India has released a concept paper on Natural Resource Accounting in 2020, highlighting the short, medium and long-term goals congregating with the SDGs goals set by the UN.

“Smart auditing practices, faster and efficient data analysis, as well as capacity building by skilling our teams in latest best practices will go a long way in creating a firm foundation for the growth goals of both economies,” the CAG of India said.