Together, we are shaping a future of accountable, inclusive, and effective governance!
The Asia-Pacific region, known for its diverse cultures and traditions, is now setting a new benchmark in sustainable performance audit practices. The Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) of Bangladesh, Bhutan, Mongolia, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, and the Philippines have come together under the IDI-ADB initiative to enhance sustainable performance audit practices, which consistently delivers relevant and high-quality (ISSAI compliant) performance audits (PA) that make a positive difference (impact).
The heart of this initiative is facilitating SAIs in setting up resilient systems for performance auditing, which endure through challenging circumstances, enabling SAIs to consistently deliver high-quality, high-impact audits that are relevant to people.
As part of Phase 1 (2022), SAIs assessed their current performance auditing practices using IDI’s Performance Audit iCAT and a set of exploratory questions on broader sustainable audit practices. Facilitated by IDI, SAIs ascertained their ISSAI implementation needs and sketched out future ambitions in setting performance audit goals, linking them with capacity development needs, and positioning performance auditing within the broader audit framework. This groundwork produced detailed assessment reports, which now form the foundation for Phase 2 of the initiative.
The six SAIs, facilitated by IDI, decided on seven envelopes to reach their goal of sustainable performance audit practices. A global team of resource persons from the six participating SAIs, the INTOSAI Performance Audit Subcommittee and the INTOSAI Capacity Building Committee’s Task Force on Auditor Professionalisation have gathered together in Thimphu, Bhutan, to design and develop education and knowledge products for some of the envelopes.
The team started its journey by deliberating on a roadmap for raising the performance audit profile of SAIs. The highlight of this work was the piloting of a focus group of key stakeholders. We were delighted to exchange views with SAI Bhutan's stakeholders, ranging from the Chairman and Members of the Bhutanese parliament's Public Accounts Committee to representatives of public sector institutions like Anti Corruption agency and representatives from key ministries and civil society organisations, especially those working for gender equality and persons with disability. This gathering provided a unique opportunity to discuss stakeholder expectations and to explore potential partnerships aimed at achieving a shared objective: delivering excellent public services to people through performance audits.
The team will also ladder the INTOSAI’s competency framework for Performance Audit Professionals to identify competencies for entry level, intermediate level and professional level performance auditors. Besides developing a generic framework, each SAI team will customize this framework for their own specific context. This piece connects global competencies to local competencies, adding value at both levels. The subsequent steps, which include enabling organizational structures for performance auditing, adding to the user-friendliness of performance audit methodologies, and developing educational content for impactful strategic and annual audit planning, are scheduled for the upcoming week.
We will be back with more news about the transformation brought by this initiative as SAIs progress on the seven envelopes, led by committed SAI leadership and facilitated by IDI and ADB.