TOKYO, ROME, BERLIN
THE PRESIDENT, MR HUBERT WEBER, REPRESENTS
THE COURT OF AUDITORS
by Rosmarie Carotti
R. C.: Mr Weber thank you for giving this interview
to the Court’s newsletter. You were invited by the
President of the Board of Audit of Japan to represent
the Court at the Tokyo International Audit Forum
in February of this year. How often does the Tokyo
International Audit Forum take place and what are its
objectives? What were this year’s themes?
Mr Hubert Weber:
his year the Tokyo International Audit Forum was
holding its eleventh annual meeting. The aim of this
international forum organised by the Japanese Supreme
Audit institution is for eminent auditors from audit
institutions throughout the world to exchange knowledge
and experience specifically related to auditing and to learn
from examples of best practice. The principal theme this
time was performance audit in the field of agriculture. In
addition, fundamental questions were also raised, ranging
far beyond the problems
specific to agriculture. These
include
methodological
questions, but also issues
like the form of reporting to
Parliament.
T
The discussion ranged very
widely. The theme of employing
experts, for example, is not a
new one in auditing circles. It
may have specific features in
relation to agriculture but the
fundamental questions are
the same: who gets them
involved and to do what, how to proceed, how to secure
the services of the experts, how to structure the reporting
process and who is answerable externally?
R. C.: Is it in any way comparable to a focus group?
Mr Hubert Weber:
In my opinion, the Japanese Board of Audit is very good
at periodically devising very interesting topics and inviting
senior representatives of Supreme Audit Institutions
(SAIs) to discuss them. The participants may vary in
accordance with the selected theme. This time Australia,
Canada, USA, Germany, France, the United Kingdom
and, with me, the European Court of Auditors were invited.
After each speaker had given his presentation, there was
a discussion by a panel of experts in the presence of a
moderator from the Board of Audit of Japan. After these
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discussions, the audience in attendance was given the
opportunity to speak. This consisted of the President,
the General Secretary and senior representatives of the
Japanese audit authorities. This was the procedure for
every session and presentation.
R. C.: You were a key-note speaker. What does that
mean? What did you talk about?
Mr Hubert Weber:
I had the particular honour of giving the opening
presentation. I talked about our approach to audits in the
field of agriculture, both compliance and performance
based. I mentioned recent examples of how we helped to
improve systems. In view of my long years of experience at
both national and European level, and also in the context
of INTOSAI, I was also invited to take part in discussion
of all the questions.
R. C.:
How did the
European Court of Auditors
contribute specifically to
the discussion?
Mr Hubert Weber:
The European Court of
Auditors did have some
things to contribute. We
have produced a series of
relevant Special Reports in
the last few years. Reporting
on the results of current
audits, comparing them with
other experiences of and approaches to agriculture and
drawing conclusions from this process was extremely
interesting and fruitful.
R. C.: Did anything particularly impress you as the
guest of the Board of Audit of Japan, which you would
say we should adopt?
Mr Hubert Weber:
In principle INTOSAI follows the maxim “Experientia
mutua omnibus prodest”, i.e. sharing experience brings
benefits for everyone. Everybody gains in an exchange
of experiences. Japan, moreover, is a highly developed
country with highly respected financial authorities. I
was impressed by how well-prepared everyone was in
addressing the themes The organisation of the event was
excellent, and the participants were clearly determined to
TOKYO, ROME, BERLIN: THE PRESIDENT, MR HUBERT WEBER,
REPRESENTS THE COURT OF AUDITORS
take advantage of the opportunity to gather a wealth of
experience from this “world forum”.
R. C.: Meanwhile we in Luxembourg have had a
visit from the Board of Audit of Japan. An exchange
of experiences between the two institutions has also
been mentioned. Can you say anything about that?
Mr Hubert Weber:
It is all part and parcel of gathering and analysing other
organisation’s experiences. The European Court of
Auditors has a very worthwhile training system which it
wants to extend as new young colleagues join us. We must
put increased emphasis on training. We are considering
the possibility of developing a Master’s in financial audit in
partnership with selected universities. These are ambitions
that involve collaborating with and measuring ourselves
against other organisations. The Board of Audit of Japan
has expressed great interest in such training schemes.
The Court has already spoken with a representative of
the Board of Audit of Japan, which, by the way, is officially
represented at the Japanese Embassy in Luxembourg.
It is very important to me to foster this type of contacts and
initiatives for practical cooperation. If the Board of Audit of
Japan’s delegates develop their ideas into a firm proposal,
apart from the participation of Japanese auditors in our
training programmes that is being considered, it is quite
possible that Court staff will go to Japan.
R. C.: How would it be if we had a representative of
our organisation in the various Member States?
R. C.: Communications means maintaining good
contacts. Could you perhaps say a few more words
about how you represented the Court of Auditors at the
celebrations for the 50th anniversary of the Treaties of
Rome?
Mr Hubert Weber:
It was a real honour to be invited to both Rome and Berlin.
I was at a special meeting of the Committee of the Regions
in Rome, when President Napolitano invited some of
the participants to go afterwards to the Quirinale, to see
some masterpieces of European art. Luxembourg was
represented too with a very fine picture from the National
Museum. This setting gave me a number of opportunities
for informal conversation with eminent and high-ranking
people.
The main event in Berlin was the Declaration jointly signed
by the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, the President of
the Commission, José Manuel Barroso and the President
of the European Parliament, Hans-Gert Pöttering. Even
though there is no further talk of a treaty establishing
a Constitution, the political will to create appropriate
underlying treaties exists. The signing of the Declaration
was a very solemn act, with musical accompaniment. The
evening before, moreover, I used the opportunity at the
gala concert in the Philharmonic Hall to talk to several
eminent people.
Finally, I should again like to emphasise how important it
was for me to visit the European Court of Auditors’ stand
by the Brandenburg Gate.
Mr Hubert Weber:
In fact there was a call for something like that from the
European Parliament. For our part, we have
not considered anything on those lines, and
I don’t know if it would be very efficient.
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