Mrs. Ginoconda Torrez, Comptroller General, Mr. Rolando Bianchini Herrera and Consultant Mrs. Quijano of the Republic of Panama, accompanied by the Ambassador of the Republic of Panama, Mario Luis Cucalon D’anello, visited President of the Control Yuan, Wang Chien-Shien. Vice-President on May,23, 2011. Chen Jinn-Lih and Secretary General, Chen Feng-Yi were also present for the occasion. Both parties enthusiastically exchanged views on their respective Control and Audit systems and expressed hope that the two countries could have more exchanges in the future.
President Wang welcomed their visit and indicated that the duties as well as responsibilities of the Control Yuan play crucial functions in supervising the government. The Control Yuan is one of the largest supervision organizations in the world, a fact which can be seen from the 1300 employees recruited by the Control Yuan and its subordinate organization, the Ministry of Audit (National Audit Office). The National Audit Office exercises its duties independently as stipulated by the Constitution, its main function is to examine the efficiency of administrative organizations in executing their budgets and to provide advice and cooperate with the Control Yuan to supervise waste in public budgets and promote budget efficiency.
Mrs. Ginoconda Torrez said that the function of the audit in Panama is very similar to that of Taiwan (R.O.C.) which is not included in the 3-power political system but also plays an important role. Approximately 3,000 employees work in this related area, and its main function is to examine all the administrative agencies so as to make sure that they have run their budgets adequately. Since Mrs. Torrez became Comptroller General, she has also paid a lot of attention to the performance of all the consulates in utilizing their budgets, Mrs. Torres said her office sends consultants to assist those who are working in consulates but are not familiar with the accounting system.
Ambassador Cucalon also shared his own experience. Although relevant accounting laws have been adopted in Panama, the majority of senior employees in the consulate only deal with financial issues according to their own experience, which makes it difficult to maximize the efficiency of the budget.
At the end of the visit, Mrs. Ginoconda Torrez and President Wang took several pictures, and the delegation also visited the historic architecture and documents exhibition of the Control Yuan.