Pursuant to a General Council decision of 10 December 2019, the First President of the French Cour des comptes has been appointed as the External Auditor of the World Trade Organization (WTO) for a six-year mandate (financial years 2020-2025) in accordance with Regulation 43 of the WTO Financial Regulations (“The General Council shall appoint an External Auditor to perform the audit of the financial statements of the WTO and of its Pension Plan in accordance with Regulation 44 for a six-year period non-renewable. The External Auditor shall be the Supreme Audit Institution of a Member of the WTO”).
The mandate given to the External Auditor covers both the audit of the financial statements, the budgetary management of accounts, and a review of the performance and regularity of the management of the WTO and its Pension Plan.
The External Auditor mandate consists in expressing every year an opinion and to issue a report on the financial statements of the Organization (Regulation 46 of the Financial Regulations). Regulation 46 of the Financial Regulations also states that : “The External Auditor may also report to the Committee on financial issues, on performance audits and/or special reports on any issue deemed of significance by the External Auditor, or any issue raised by the General Council.”
In accordance with Regulation 44 of the Financial Regulations of the WTO, the External Auditor conducts his audits in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (ISAs) and with the International Standards of Supreme Audit Institutions (ISSAI).