The event was organized by the Chamber of Accounts of the Republic of Azerbaijan with the support of the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation, which serves as the Secretariat of the Working Group.

The meeting brought together representatives of the Supreme Audit Institutions of Azerbaijan, Belarus, China, Malaysia, Russia, Türkiye, Pakistan, India, Serbia, and Uzbekistan, as well as experts from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the World Bank, and the State Agency for Antimonopoly and Consumer Market Control of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

The programme included a plenary session entitled “Public Procurement Audit: Experience of Supreme Audit Institutions”, an expert panel on “Modern Trends in Public Procurement”, and a technical session dedicated to the results of the Working Group’s activities and its future work plans.

During the meeting, participants exchanged views on advanced practices and modern approaches in the field of public procurement audit.

In particular, discussions focused on the digitalization and monitoring of public procurement processes, strengthening oversight through information and analytical systems, and organizing risk-based control using aggregated data.

The meeting also featured presentations by the Supreme Audit Institutions of China, Russia, and Azerbaijan on the use of artificial intelligence and data analytics to identify conflicts of interest, related-party relationships, artificial splitting of procurement procedures, collusive practices, and other risk factors.

Participants also discussed modern approaches to risk assessment and classification in public procurement, the application of risk-based methodologies in audit planning, and the evaluation of the efficiency of public expenditure.

Within the framework of the meeting, the delegation of the Chamber of Accounts of the Republic of Uzbekistan visited the Chamber of Accounts of the Republic of Azerbaijan and became closely acquainted with its practical activities.

During the visit, the delegation studied the electronic internal resource management systems, the State Audit Information System, and the Audit Management Platform.

This provided an opportunity to gain first-hand knowledge of advanced practices in the digitalization of public audit processes, data analytics, and the implementation of modern technologies.

As a result of participating in the event, several priority areas for further improving the activities of the Chamber of Accounts were identified. These include the gradual introduction of artificial intelligence technologies for the automatic detection of risks and anomalies based on data from public procurement and other government information resources, the application of risk-based models in planning public procurement audits, automated profiling of audit entities, and further improvement of the methodological framework for assessing the efficiency of public procurement.

At the same time, expanding cooperation within international organizations and working groups, studying advanced international practices in digital technologies and data analytics in public auditing, and further strengthening professional capacity-building for specialists were identified as important priorities.

Participation in this international event enabled the specialists of the Chamber of Accounts to gain valuable knowledge of modern international practices in the digitalization of public audit, the application of artificial intelligence, the organization of risk-based auditing, and data analytics, while also strengthening cooperation with foreign Supreme Audit Institutions.