Press Release

FSM National Auditors Attended the 2006 Annual Pacific Emerging Issues Conference held on Guam in August 2006

On August 22-25, 2006 , the Pacific Emerging Issues Conference (PEIC) hosted by the Guam Chapter of the Association of Government Accountants (AGA) was held at the Marriot Hotel in Guam . Mr. Haser Hainrick , FSM National Public Auditor, along with Eric Elias , Keller Phillip , Aisi Mori and Christina Elnei represented the Office of the FSM National Public Auditor at this year's annual PEIC.

The format of the Conference was divided into three tracks: Investigative, Accountability, and Management. Each participant earned up to 30 Continuing Professional Education (CPE) hours.

The Conference included sessions offered in three separate tracks that were lectured by high caliber instructors and trainers who came from the US mainland. The Investigative tracked was presented by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and included discussions on the latest tools to fight white collar crimes, fraud prevention, fraud detection, and terrorism. The Management track included presentation on cost/benefits of outsourcing, performance management and frameworks for excellence, internal controls and risk management, featuring install Measure Toolkit, and grants management. And finally, the Accountability track included presentations on GASB (Yellow Book) and FASB updates, AICPA new standards, professional ethics and independence, accountability in the 21 st century, SOX implications, and OMB A-127.

The participants that attended the PEIC included staffs from the Deloitte and Touché, Guam Public Auditor's Office, Guam Government Agencies, CNMI Public Auditor's Office, the FSM States of Pohnpei and Yap Public Auditor's Offices, Palau Public Auditor's Office, and finally the FSM National Public Auditor's Office.

The interesting part of the Conference was that during the plenary sessions, lunch breaks, and networking, there were many distinguished Guest Speakers who were prominent leaders of the Government of Guam (Governor, Senators, Guam Attorney General and the CEO of the Guam Public Utilities Corporation). Among others, the Speakers talked about a wide range of issues including the challenges that the Government of Guam and its entities were faced with. During the networking session, the participants had the chance to sit and interact with the distinguished speakers, trainers and as well as the instructors.

Eric Elias stated in his trip report that the training was very challenging and will be very helpful when conducting audit assignments. And as stated by Christina Elnei , Administrative Officer, “I learned a lot from the training in regards to the latest updates in conducting an audit; the Speakers were great and training sessions were very informative.”