On February 10, 2026, at the premises of Hotel Rogner in Tirana, SIGMA/OECD organized in cooperation with the Ministry of Finance a conference “Strengthening internal audit capacities in the public sector”, at which the updated Internal Audit Manual was presented.

Present at this event were Ms. Ritva Heikinnen, Head of the European Union Cooperation Delegation to Albania, Mr. Ferdinand Pot, SIGMA/OECD High Representative, Mr. Manfred van Kesteren, SIGMA expert, Deputy Minister of Finance, Mr. Andi Memeti, representatives of the working group for the preparation and updating of the Internal Audit Manual, as well as heads of the Internal Audit Units at the national level. The ALSAI was represented at this event by Ms. Jorida Zhegu, auditor in the Internal Audit Directorate.

This activity addressed the main achievements of 2025 in Public Internal Financial Control, such as: adoption of the Global Internal Audit Standards; approval of the new Internal Audit Manual; opening of the certification process for internal auditors.

At the end of the conference, the innovations of the Internal Manual were presented, consisting of the way in which the audit process is engaged and managed, determining the unification and enhancement of audit formats and quality in each process; compliance with the Global Internal Audit Standards (GIAS); detailed and standardized documentation of each audit phase; clear mechanisms for quality control and oversight, etc.