NORWEGIAN AUDITOR GENERAL EXTENDS COOPERATION AGREEMENT
The Norwegian Auditor General, Mr Jorgen Kosmo, visited Zambia from 30 November to 3 December 2011. During the visit he signed an extension of the cooperation agreement between his office and the Zambian Office of the Auditor General (OAGZ). In signing the extension agreement Mr Kosmo commended the OAGZ for their achievements and advised them to continue to work hard to further develop their skills.
Successful institutional cooperation
Overall, Mr Kosmo expressed great admiration for the work that is being done by the OAGZ. He commended the Norwegian and the Netherlands governments for their support, which has made it possible for OAGZ to achieve good results. He further emphasized the importance of strengthening the audit of revenues as this will ensure that Zambia may rely on its national resources and thus become less dependent on foreign aid.
Commending OAGZ’s outreach, Mr Kosmo further advised the OAGZ to continue participating in capacity building to develop other Supreme Audit Institutions in the region and beyond.
His counterpart, the OAGZ Auditor General Anna Chifungula, expressed gratitude for the institutional cooperation with the Norwegian Office of the Auditor General. She attributed the successes of her office to the good institutional cooperation experienced since 1996.
50 laptops handed over
Mr Kosmo also handed over a tangible donation of 50 upgraded laptops to the Zambian Auditor General. This welcome addition to the inventory is expected to strengthen OAGZ’s capacity to fulfil their mandate.
Meetings with government
Mr Kosmo also held separate consultative talks with the Zambian Minister of Finance, Mr Alexander Chikwanda, and with the Zambian National Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee on 1 December 2011. On 2 December Mr Kosmo had a meeting with the Deputy Minister in the Office of the Vice President, Mr Edgar Lungu.
In attendance in the meeting with the Minister of Finance were the Norwegian Ambassador to Zambia, Mr Arve Ofstad, and the Netherlands’ ambassador, Mr Harry Molenaar.