COMPENDIUM CAROSAI PROGRAME ON COOPERATIVE AUDITS OF REVENUE DEPARTMENT
Report ID: 308
From 2013 to 2015, the SAIs of Bahamas, Barbados, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica y St. Lucia conducted a parallel audit of revenues,aimed to improve SAI’s professional staff and organisational capacity to conduct and report on audit of revenues / revenue departments (AIM). This audit took place under the framework of a CAROSAI Programme on Cooperative Audits of Revenue Department supported by the INTOSAI Development Initiative (IDI), the INTOSAI Capacity Building Committee (CBC).
The audit objective was to assess the effectiveness of the management of taxes (such as VAT, income tax, business tax) in the participating countries by examining key aspects of the revenue collection process: 1. Registration; 2. Collection; 3. Compliance and enforcement; and 4. Monitoring and Reporting.
A general conclusion was tbat current management performance reporting mechanisms across the agencies audited did not enable management to exercise sufficient ongoing control over the debt collection function. In some instances high level revenue targets were set related to a predetermined value as opposed to an accurate assessment of total obligations.
This impacts governments’ revenue base. The development of a monitoring strategy would provide immediate business benefits by ensuring that where ineffective processes in the debt collections function are identified, they are reported to management promptly so that remedial action can be taken.
Over the longer term, regular management reporting based on monitoring the performance of the debt collection activities (with Key Performance Indicators assigned) would support management’s responsibility to ensure the efficiency and effectiveness of its collections business operations.
Source: https://www.eurosai.org/handle404?exporturi=/export/sites/eurosai/.content/documents/CAROSAI-Compendium.pdf