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EU auditors and policymakers continue accountability dialogue | Public Finance International publicfinanceinternational.org 

EU auditors and policymakers continue accountability dialogue

By Judith Ugwumadu | 16 October 2014

Auditors, policymakers and parliamentarians have entered into fresh talks on how to improve the European Union’s fragile accountability system. 

A high-level conference held in Brussels on October 14 considered how accountability throughout the EU could be improved. 

The European Court of Auditors described the current system as a ‘complex and enormous industry’ and said it was not surprised to hear of the risk of growing accountability gaps, overlaps and deficits. 

ECA president Vítor Caldeira said: ‘Effective democratic scrutiny and efficient public audit go hand-in-hand. They contribute to legitimacy by making it clear to the EU’s citizens what progress is being made, for example in improving the economy, increasing employment prospects, securing the union’s borders, or protecting the environment, and at what cost.

'But for that to happen, the right accountability arrangements need to be in place at EU and national level.’

In September, the ECA issued its first landscape review, which put forward a model for accountability based on six elements. These were:

•   clear definitions of roles and responsibilities across the EU and in           member states 

•   public assurance to the public about the achievement of EU policy objectives 

•   democratic oversight by parliaments 

•   feedback mechanisms to ensure improvement over time

•   independent external audit of EU bodies in relation to accounts and performance

•   adequate provisions for audit recommendations to be implemented and followed up  

Kevin Cardiff, ECA Member responsible for presenting the landscape review, said: ‘Many of the structures for accountability in the EU are set out in treaties and legislation. These will not change overnight. But the purpose of the ECA landscape review and today’s conference is to kick-start a discussion about what change is needed and how it might be implemented.’ 

The ECA is expected to publish its second landscape review next month, in which the EU auditors aim to identify the risks to the financial management of the EU budget.

The landscape review of accountability and audit in the EU can be read here.

More documents from the conference are available here. 

Moscow Statement

The "Moscow Statement" adopted as the official result of the II ASOSAI-EUROSAI Joint Conference held in Moscow from 25 to 26 September 2014.

Click here for the full version

TERMINOLOGY STANDARDIZATION OF MONGOLIAN TECHNICAL VOCABULARY

TERMINOLOGY STANDARDIZATION OF MONGOLIAN TECHNICAL VOCABULARY

I have written several formal recommendations to both the former ATVET and its successor, the new TVET, as well as Oyu Tolgoi concerning issues related to technical terminology. The logic for these recommendations came from my consulting work with Oyu Tolgoi, visits to 10 public and 4 private technical institutions as well as reviews of numerous existing dictionaries and word lists (glossaries). In the following, I have compiled the discrete comments in an amalgamated recommendation.

OBJECTIVE

Use of professionally developed bilingual (Mongolian/English) competency-based curricula with clear outcomes related to the work required by most international companies and using a standardized technical terminology

RATIONALE

Through the combination of my own translation team’s efforts, discussions with OT internal translators, OT provider translators, higher education institutions, Mongolian technical specialist contacts elsewhere, and perusal of definitions from at least 6 technical dictionaries, I can confidently say that there is a dearth of uniformity in technical terms leading to confusion and potential safety concerns. This is caused by the changes in both education and technology, resulting in older technicians being more familiar with Russian terms, while younger ones are current with some English terminology, thus availing translation for one technical term in two to three different ways.

For some English terms there is no Mongolian word, although there may be no need to translate all technical words into Mongolian. Some translators try to “Mongolianize” terms, while others favour anglicizing them. Ongoing monitoring of assessment processes which I have been involved with has thus elicited several terminological errors and the replacement of more common usage terms. Although the Mongolian Agency for Standardization and Metrology (MASM) has a standardization mandate, it has focused on sectors other than TVET up to now. The foregoing predicates a need for a committee to standardize technical terminology in Mongolia.

Dictionaries

A common issue with some existing technical dictionaries is that the words are ordered thematically, not alphabetically, making it difficult for non-specialists to find specific terms. Comprehensive indexes are also lacking and there is a dearth of uniformity in technical terms.

Translation:

At least six dictionaries are available on-line, with another half dozen hard copies purchasable at various bookstores and academic publishers in Mongolia. OT itself has a compilation of human resource and technical terms, while private providers have developed their own glossaries.

Cooperative effort:

Currently there is no coordination of government, companies and institutions working separately on similar projects: e.g. one major multinational in Ulaan Baatar has 6 translators working on technical manuals from English to Mongolian for their use; their translations, once vetted for relevance, could be standardized for the trades they covered, with due credit given; while similar products by other entities could be also standardized, thus avoiding duplicative efforts and abetting the sharing of cooperative efforts. However, at present each company develops and retains its own translations.

Safety:

Having had incidental discussions with numerous subject-knowledgeable staff, it became evident that some safety manuals were found to be deficient in the translation leading to potential safety issues; the reason for this was that the content in the Mongolian language does not look or sound really Mongolian, but rather is a literal[1] translation. While effort had been extended to make the translations identical to the English, when Mongolians read them, the sentences become unclear or unfinished or incoherent. In some, what is described in the middle is transformed again by the end.

PROPOSAL

There need be a thorough review of all manuals with the help of Mongolian linguists, expatriate translation along with firm-specific and other technical experts. Properly written, the public and staff will perceive the information positively and Mongolian documents would become truly standard setting.

I therefore advocate for a national technical terminology standardization commission to set the standard technical terminology so that all institutes throughout Mongolia, especially as they update and expand their curricula, use the same vocabulary. Such a commission could be responsible for:

·       Standardization of terminology

·       Preparation of specialized glossaries for each trade

·       Revision of glossaries produced by foreign operators and clients

·       Storage, management and dissemination of terminology

Respectfully submitted,

Ivan G. Somlai
Director - Global Collaboration (http://globalcollaboration.blogspot.ca/)Ivan.Somlai@INSEAD.edu (alternatively, ivansomlai@gmail.com)Associate - Centre for Asia Pacific Initiatives, University of Victoria (www.capi.uvic.ca/)
Managing Editor (since 2006) - International Journal of Social Forestry (www.IJSF.org)Skype & LinkedIn---Ivan G. Somlai

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[1] Literal language refers to words that do not deviate from their defined meaning, most common in machine-aided translations. Figurative language refers to words, and groups of words, that exaggerate or alter the usual meanings of the component words. Idiomatic translation conveys the meaning of the original, or source text, by using equivalent language and the forms and structures of the target language, in order to produce a translation that reads like an original.

Printed with authorization from the author

Mongol Scripts

Herein is listed some 11 different scripts that have been used to write the Mongol language during the past 800 years from the days of Chinggis Khaan until the present day. The section for each script contains an example of the word "Mongol" in that script along with a brief history of its usage. Many have scans from Mongolian books that chart how the symbols are used compared against another script such as Latin, Cyrillic or Tibetan and have links to more information where available. The examples are my own attempt at reconstructing the script from the information provided. Click here to read more

Strategic Plan 2011-2017 EUROSAI

 In its Strategic Plan 2011-2017 EUROSAI has committed itself to provide high quality translation of the ISSAIs and INTOSAI GOVs into the official EUROSAI languages.

 Goal Team 2 promotes the translation of the standards into Russian (the only EUROSAI working language in which they do not already exist) and provides them on this website.

Goal Team 2 also offers other materials and documents related to the ISSAI framework in its section

 SAIs that wish to translate the ISSAI into their national languages should observe the Translation policy of the INTOSAI PSC.

 The INTOSAI Development Initiative (IDI) has launched a web portal for the ISSAI Implementation Initiative (3i Portal) which aims at creating and sharing knowledge and information regarding the implementation of ISSAIs.

For more information please click here