The AFROSAI 2017/18 Coordinated Audit on Corruption as a driver of Illicit Financial Flows

Report ID: 234

In 2017, members of the AFROSAI from South Africa, Senegal, Togo, Tanzania, Kenya, Niger, Uganda, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire and Liberia undertook a coordinated audit, focusing on corruption as a driver of Illicit Financial Flows, especially on Asset Declaration and Public Procurement Systems which was completed in April 2018. 

On the topic of Asset Declaration Systems, the audit revealed that:

• Systems have been put in place in all but one country, but they differ substantially.
• There is a need to revisit the regulatory frameworks.
• The sanction regime needs to be strengthened and fully applied.
• In most countries, the verification of declarations needs to be urgently improved.
• Public accessibility of declarations needs to be reconsidered.

On the topic of Asset Declaration Systems, the audit revealed that:

• Systems have been put in place in all countries with regulatory frameworks that provide for transparency.
• Public procurement systems need to deliver on competitiveness and efficiency.
• Conflicts of interest in public procurement need to be better managed.
• Inclusion of procurement officials in asset declaration regimes is essential.
• Corruption reporting mechanisms need to be made fully operational.
• Oversight over procurement, including follow up and sanctions, must be strengthened.
• Capacity for implementation of procurement laws and regulations is weak.

The overall conclusion of the AFROSAI 2017/18 Coordinated Audit on Corruption as a driver of Illicit Financial Flows:

• The Governments audited have made substantial progress in putting the asset declaration and procurement systems required by AUCPCC and UNCAC in place. It is now imperative to improve their operations.
• As an overarching finding, it is imperative to strengthen the controls of these systems, whether it is the verification of asset declarations, the procurement audits by oversight bodies or the control of declarations of conflict of interest in procurement. These controls combined with adequate sanction regimes must be put in place to prevent impunity.
• Supreme Audit Institutions are essential actors in providing recommendations for improving these and other public finance systems. Their role in national governance systems should therefore be strengthened.

Auditoría Coordinada de Energías Renovables

Report ID: 245

La Organización Latinoamericana y del Caribe de Entidades Fiscalizadoras Superiores (OLACEFS), por medio del Grupo de Trabajo de Auditoría de Obras Públicas (GTOP), escogió el tema energías renovables en el sector eléctrico para la realización de una auditoría coordinada.

Participaron en los trabajos conjuntos las Entidades Fiscalizadoras Superiores de doce países (Brasil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, México, Paraguay y Venezuela). Ello hizo posible promover un intercambio de informaciones sobre las políticas energéticas adoptadas en cada país y una posterior consolidación de los resultados de la auditoría, con el propósito de contribuir con la mejora de las estrategias dirigidas hacia la expansión de fuentes limpias en la matriz eléctrica.

El objetivo de la auditoría fue realizar un diagnóstico sobre políticas públicas e inversiones relacionadas con la expansión de las energías renovables en el sector eléctrico en los países participantes de la región de América Latina y el Caribe, en especial identificando buenas prácticas y oportunidades de mejora en dichas políticas, de manera que se contribuya al alcance de los compromisos asumidos por medio de los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible (ODS) y del Acuerdo de París.

Los objetivos específicos que abordó la auditoría coordinada fueron:

1) Identificar la situación actual de la matriz eléctrica en cada uno de los países miembros participantes de la OLACEFS;

2) Evaluar si existen políticas públicas establecidas para el alcance de los compromisos nacionales y/o internacionales asumidos para la expansión de las energías renovables en el sector eléctrico, en especial para el logro de los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible y del Acuerdo de París;

3) Analizar las inversiones en infraestructura para la generación de energía eléctrica sostenible (fuentes hídrica, eólica, solar, biomasa, marea, etc.) y eventuales barreras existentes para la  inserción/expansión de esta infraestructura, sobre todo con relación a los aspectos relacionados a los desafíos operacionales, cuestiones regulatorias, políticas de subsidio y de fomento, seguridad energética, precio de la energía, modulación de las tarifas, entre otros.

Perspectives on climate change in Canada – A collaborative report from Auditors General

Report ID: 291

To assess climate change action in Canada, provincial auditors general partnered with the federal Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development and the Office of the Auditor General of Canada, which carried out audit work for the three territories in its role as independent auditor for Canada’s northern legislatures.

The overall objective of this collaborative project was to assess whether the federal, provincial, and territorial governments had met their commitments to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to climate change. Although each audit office performed its work independently, the offices worked together to develop a set of common questions related to climate change action to be included in the auditors’ individual reports. he coordination of this work was done through the Office of the Auditor General of Canada by the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development. This is the first time that so many legislative audit offices in Canada coordinated their work in this way.

The report summarizes audit findings from the reports presented by the provincial audit offices and the Office of the Auditor General of Canada to the provincial, territorial, and federal legislatures. The reports of the participating audit offices were completed between November 2016 and March 2018.

In the planning of the audits, among others, the following model of cooperative audits were considered:

• The International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI) Working Group on Environmental Auditing (WGEA) Coordinated Audit on Climate Change 2010.
• The INTOSAI WGEA document Cooperation Between Supreme Audit Institutions: Tips and Examples for Cooperative Audits, 2007

Source:https://www.oag-bvg.gc.ca/internet/English/parl_otp_201803_e_42883.html

COORDINATED AUDIT ON THE PRISON SYSTEM IN BRAZIL - PHASE 2.

Report ID: 387

In view of the difficulties that many audit courts would have in maintaining an audit team focused exclusively on auditing prisons that started in 2017, for two years; it was decided to resize the work to address it entirely in two stages. (The Stage 1 report is available at: https://intosai-cooperativeaudits.org/catalog/report/coordinated-audit-of-the-brazilian-penitentiary-system-2017).

In the first stage, the topics 'electronic system for monitoring the execution of sentences', 'allocation of prisoners' and 'monthly prisoner cost' were addressed. In the second stage it was decided to deepen the analysis of mandatory fund-by-fund transfers, the governance of the prison system (integration and coordination) and the implementation of electronic monitoring systems.

The questions addressed in this second phase of the audit were:

1) Is the control exercised over the resources of the National Penitentiary Fund (Funpen) transferred to the State and Federal District funds in compliance with the requirements established by Complementary Law 79/1994 and by the rules issued by the National Penitentiary Department?

2) Is the technological resource of the electronic monitoring solution adequately implemented and available in the states and the Federal District?

3) Does the governance structure of the public policy of the penitentiary system adhere to the "coordination" and "institutionalisation" components?

4) Does the audit of the penitentiary system carried out by the criminal enforcement bodies comply with the objectives established by the Criminal Enforcement Law?

The participants in the coordinated audit were 22 courts of accounts, namely: Court of Accounts of the Federal District, the Municipalities of the State of Pará, State of Bahia, States of Acre, Alagoas, Amazonas, Amapá, Bahia, Maranhão, Minas Gerais, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Pará, Paraíba, Piauí, Paraná, Rio Grande do Norte, Rio Grande do Sul, Rondônia, Roraima, Sergipe, and Tocantins.

Source: https://tcu.jusbrasil.com.br/jurisprudencia/574057393/relatorio-de-auditoria-ra-ra-2609620170 ,https://legis.senado.leg.br/sdleg-getter/documento?dm=7733520&disposition=inline

Public Procurement in Western Balkans Synthesis Report on the Parallel Performance Audit

Report ID: 392

The Joint Working Group on Audit Activities (JWGAA) was established in 2002 with a mandate to contribute to maintaining the working links and cooperation between the SAIs in the Contact Committee and the Presidents’ Network (candidate and potential candidate countries). The main goal of the group’s activities is to facilitate cooperation between the current and future member SAIs, to provide support and to help exchange experience in the process of institutional development, transition and negotiation on EU accession Chapter 32 (the ability to assume the obligations of membership in the area of financial control).

The Parallel Performance Audit (PPA) project under the umbrella of the JWGAA was initiated in 2014 (as PPA 1), when the member SAIs received training and coaching on performance audit practice. Based on experiences from this pilot project, a PPA 2 project was launched in 2016, to conduct a PPA of Public Procurement, an area generally susceptible to fraud and corruption, and as such, it is often the focus of attention from the general public.

From April 2016 to September 2017, the SAIs of Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo*, Montenegro and Serbia, supported by the ECA and the Swedish National Audit Office (SNAO), which co-chairs the JWGAA, conducted a parallel audit aimed to identify system problems related to public procurement, and suggesting possible ways in which these problems can be tackled by their respective governments.

The audit environment of the six SAIs is characterized by a common historical heritage and a similar bureaucratic culture, a transition process, and ongoing reforms on the way to EU integration. The report presents a synthesis of general findings and conclusions from the parallel audit as well as how this cooperation process was developed.

Source: http://www.dri.co.me/1/doc/Synthesis%20Report%20on%20the%20parallel%20performance%20audit%20of%20public%20procurament%20in%20Western%20Balkans.pdf