Audit Bureau president meets with UNICRI’s delegation

AMMAN — President of the Audit Bureau Radhi Al-Hamadeen acquainted on Sunday a delegation from the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI) with the bureau’s work mechanism. 

Hamadeen said that the bureau audits 300 national entities subject to its supervision, including companies in which the government owns 50 per cent of the shares or more, with total budgets estimated at JD13 billion, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. 

The president also said that cooperation with other institutions concerned with oversight is carried out according to the “highest” levels to spare effort and time aimed to enhance accountability, which would increase citizen’s confidence in state institutions. 

James Shaw, the UNICRI delegation head, said that Jordan is one of the pioneering countries in the Middle East, pointing out that the meeting is within the framework of looking into the possibility of launching cooperation to reduce organised crime, especially in financial fields. 

Shaw expressed the UNICRI’s readiness to provide technical support to the bureau through official channels and learn about the best international practices, especially in combating financial crimes under the partnership project funded by the European Union with multiple Jordanian institutions. 

He said that the bureau “enjoys enough expertise” in reducing corruption cases, especially since it is directly linked to the Parliament. 

Shaw voiced UNICRI’s readiness to provide technical support to the bureau in reducing tax evasion, as well as providing expertise in forensic financial auditing by hiring experts from other countries to transfer expertise to the Kingdom’s oversight agency.