Washington, D.C. September 23, 2011 - At a ceremony in Washington, DC, the President of the Islamic Development Bank, Dr. Ahmad Mohamed Ali, signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI) and the donor community. The Comptroller General of the United States, Mr. Gene Dodaro, World Bank Vice-President and Head of Network, OPCS, Mr. Joachim von Amsberg, and the co-Chair of the INTOSAI-Donor Cooperation, Anthony Hegarty, were among the guests at the ceremony. The Islamic Development Bank Group is the sixteenth development partner organization to join the MoU, which represents a global effort to encourage donor countries to engage in financial management of public funds.
Recognizing the important role of Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) in strengthening accountability, transparency, good governance and the stewardship of public funds, the INTOSAI-Donor MoU aims at scaling up and enhancing the support provided to SAIs in developing countries. Since it was signed in 2009, the MoU has played an important role in securing donor funding for several regional SAI capacity development initiatives.
In his remarks at the signing ceremony, Dr. Ali noted: “Many developing countries, including IDB Member countries, presently lack capacity in financial management of public funds, primarily due to weak oversight and weak national auditing and accountability systems. This is an effective initiative aimed at tackling this critical problem, which ultimately hinders aid effectiveness and development results. The IDB Group decided to become a signatory to this MOU between INTOSAI and the Donor Community in order to assist our ISB Member Countries.”
The signatories to the INTOSAI-Donor MoU are INTOSAI, the African Development Bank, Austria, Belgium, Canada, the European Commission, the Inter American Development Bank, the International Monetary Fund, Ireland, the Islamic Development Bank, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, and the World Bank.

About IsDB
The Islamic Development Bank is an international financial institution established in 1975 with a mission to promote comprehensive human development, with a focus on the priority areas of alleviating poverty, improving health, promoting education, improving governance and prospering the people. The present membership of the Bank consists of (56) countries. The basic condition for membership is that the prospective member country should be a member of the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation, pay its contribution to the capital of the Bank and be willing to accept such terms and conditions as may be decided upon by the IsDB Board of Governors. The authorized capital of the Bank has been increased to US$45 billion and the subscribed capital became US$23 billion. Headquartered in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, the IsDB has four regional offices in Morocco, Malaysia, Kazakhstan, and Senegal.
Media contact:
Khaled A. Nazer
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