Charter
Preamble
The South Pacific Association of Supreme Audit Institutions (“SPASAI”) was formed in 1987 by a group of Supreme Audit Institutions (“SAIs”) in the Pacific, which had been meeting triennially since 1971.
SPASAI’s objective since its formation has been to promote understanding and co-operation among SAIs in the Pacific, to fortify and strengthen SAIs through training and continuing education, and to serve as a regional working group of the International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions (“INTOSAI”).
Developing the capacity and independence of Pacific SAIs through regional initiatives is essential to enhancing and stimulating economic growth, sustainable development, good governance and security, and to combating corruption in the Pacific.
The organisational structure and role of SPASAI needed to be enhanced if it was to help achieve those ends and work effectively in conjunction with development organisations.
To better reflect the diversity and spread of its membership, it was also desirable to change the name of the organisation in 2008 to the Pacific Association of Supreme Audit Institutions (“PASAI”).
At the 12th Congress in Koror, Palau, on 20-24 July 2009, the members of PASAI adopted a new Charter with updated mandates and founding principles. This Charter paved the way for the PASAI Secretariat to develop into an independent organisation in its own right under a new governance structure. Under the new Charter the objectives, mandate and principles are established as follows:
Objective and Mandate
Section 1
PASAI promotes transparent, accountable, effective and efficient use of public sector resources in the Pacific.
Section 2
PASAI contributes to that goal by helping its member SAIs improve the quality of public sector auditing in the Pacific to uniformly high standards.
Section 3
To that objective, PASAI's mandate is to:
(a) strengthen understanding, co-operation and co-ordination between its members
(b) advocate the interests of good governance - including transparency, accountability and the need for strong and independant SAIs - to governments and others in the Pacific region
(c) build and sustain public auditing capacity across the Pacific by sharing knowledge with, and providing support to, its members
(d) assist its members to perform their auditing functions, including through co-operative audits and similar activities
(e) serve as a regional working group of INTOSAI, in the interests of all SAIs in the Pacific and beyond
(f) encourage co-operation with other regional working groups and SAIs
Principles
PASAI members agree and affirm the following principles which underpin the functioning of PASAI and their interactions with each other:
(a) the autonomy and independence of each member are to be respected and preserved
(b) taking a regional approach to a common issue does not supplant a member's individual needs
(c) PASAI's resources are to be made available to all its members, irrespective of their geographical location or constitutional status
(d) the appropriate involvement of private sector auditors in the public sector auditing, under the auspices of SAI heads, is to be supported and promoted
