On the recommendation of the Coordinating Committee for following up the report of the National Audit Court (NAC), chaired by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Prime Minister Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Institute of Public Administration (BIPA) held a workshop entitled “The mechanism of dealing with the NAC's reports”, in the presence of the Minister of the Follow-up Affairs HE Mohammed bin Ibrahim Al-Mutawa, and a number of senior officials in the public sector of undersecretaries, assistants undersecretaries, general managers and the like in a number of government ministries, bodies and institutions. This workshop came to raise the capabilities and skills of the participants and provide them with appropriate mechanisms to deal with the NAC's reports.
During the workshop, and in his speech, the Minister of the Follow-up Affairs, stressed on the importance of skills development for government leaders to deal with the NAC's reports, which goes in line with the government's keenness to consecrate the principles of follow-up and transparency in all government agencies and ministries, to ensure preserving public fund and the optimal utilization of resources and safeguarding them, adding that the government is seeking to ensure the integrity and efficiency of the government regulations, in a way to increase the effectiveness of government's performance and protecting public money, praising the periodic reports issued by the NAC.
The Minister Al-Mutawa added that the directives of His Royal Highness The Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al-Khalifa to all government agencies and institutions, have always focused on the importance of cooperation with the NAC, and offering support in the implementation of its monitory tasks, and the attentive follow-up of His Royal Highness The Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and first Deputy Prime Minister Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa to implement the recommendations of the NAC's report, through chairing the Coordinating Committee, which came with positive results as most ministries started implementing the NAC's recommendations and correcting their mistakes.
For his part, BIPA's Director General Dr. Raed Mohammed bin Shams stressed the keenness of the government, led by His Royal Highness The Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, and the support of His Royal Highness The Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Premier, on the need for continued self-censorship and internal audit in government ministries and agencies to save public money from waste and verify the integrity and legitimacy of its handling, adding that the Prime Minister had assigned, at the ordinary weekly meeting of the Cabinet which was held on 5th January, 2015, the Coordinating Committee chaired by the Crown Prince and First Deputy Prime Minister to investigate into the fundamental observations and recommendations stated in the last report of NAC 2013-2014, in order to correct the shortcomings and inadequacies revealed by NAC's report.
Dr. bin Shams said “The government methodology in dealing with the NAC's reports, which aims to eliminate the financial and administrative irregularities and violations, made it a necessity for BIPA to hold this workshop to ensure participants' familiarization with the constitutional and legal points of reference for the establishment of the NAC, and getting to know the role of the different parties in the country in controlling of state funds and the fight against corruption, as well as the application of appropriate strategies and implementation steps with regard to the repeated observations in the Court's reports”. Stressing the importance and necessity of the NAC's reports in controlling the administrative and financial practices; and protecting public funds, on the grounds that the NAC is one of the most important independent constitutional institutions, which was established as a result of the reform project of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa.
The workshop was presented by Dr. Ahmed Al-Baluchi, the expert in the financial and administrative control and audit, as well as overseeing the performance of the public ministries and agencies and the private institutions, Dr. Al-Baluchi was NAC’s undersecretary previously, and university lecturer who specialized in accounting and auditing, at the University of Bahrain, Bahrain Institute for Financial and Banking Studies and Ernst & Young.
For their part, the participants praised the contents of the workshop which contributed in providing them with the ideas and tools needed for dealing with the NAC’s reports efficiently and effectively, in addition to the discussion of many of the real management cases which were contained in the report of the Court to know the best practices for dealing with them, and highlighted their gaining of capabilities in identifying the key aspects on how to deal with these reports.
The workshop has included several topics that dealt with the constitutional, legal and administrative methodology of NAC, the issued reports and the mechanism used in their issuance, and the role of the ministries and other government agencies in the implementation of the recommendations of the Court, as well as how these institutions, falling under the Court’s scrutiny, behave in case of discovering financial or administrative irregularities. Also, the workshop has addressed the disciplinary accountability procedures and investigating the irregularities and referring them to the Public Prosecution.