Coordinated Audit of the Mercosur Free from Foot-and-Mouth Disease Action Program (PAMA)

Report ID: 281

In 2011, as part of the Action Plan of the Organisation of  Supreme Audit Institutions  of MERCOSUR and associated, the Supreme Audit Institutions of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Venezuela and Bolivia carried out a coordinated audit on the Mercosur Foot and Mouth Disease Free Action Programme - PAMA with the support of GIZ.

The objective of the coordinated audit was to analyse the contribution of PAMA to the fight against FMD, whether the resources used by the programme were being audited and whether adequate follow-up was being carried out, identifying, in both cases, aspects of improvement for the management of the programme.

The topic was chosen because of the socio-economic importance of livestock activity in the region and the risk of livestock contagion in the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR) due to recurrent outbreaks of the disease in countries of the region. In addition, the audit of EFSUR in 2010 pointed out the opportunity to deepen the research on the controls of FOCEM projects, suggesting the audit of the PAMA, because it is a multi-state program, and the evidence detected on control deficiencies, considering also that due to the characteristics of dispersion of the disease, only an articulated and integrated effort of the countries could provide concrete contributions.

The coordinated audit was part of a pilot project to examine the capacity building methodology developed under the GIZ/Olacefs Programme.

Source: https://efsur.org/informes-de-auditoria/

WGEAs global audit on climate change, adaptation to Climate Change, are Governments prepared

Report ID: 12

This cooperative audit is based on eight individual national audit reports from Austria, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia and Ukraine, and a factfinding study by the European Court of Auditors. Generally the national audits revealed that the countries assessed in this report are in an early stage in adapting to climate change. So far, adaptation activities are related to identifying risk and vulnerabilities and to some extent policy development. Actions identified in the national audits covered in this report are mainly a response to current challenges and not initiated due to anticipated medium-term and long-term climate change impacts.

The national audits revealed that most countries have prepared risk and vulnerability assessments of sufficient quality. Up to the time of concluding the national audits, only two of the eight countries had developed a comprehensive adaptation strategy.

In most countries, weaknesses in coordination of adaptation are identified. There is also a general lack of cost estimates of impacts of climate change or adaptation measures in policy documents. This increases the risk that climate change and adaptation issues are not being sufficiently addressed in decision-making processes

It is recommended that

• countries use adequate risk and vulnerability assessments for policy-making and consider the impacts of likely climate change scenarios with higher expected temperature increases than the 2-degrees scenario
• adaptation strategies and action plans should be developed and implemented at the government level
• the strategies should clearly specify the time-frame for implementation and the roles and responsibilities of all the parties involved
• governments should ensure coordinated adaptation policy and its implementation
• governments should provide knowledge, to the extent possible and meaningful, of the costs and benefits of climate change impacts and adaptation measures to ensure cost-effective implementation

Pacific regional report on the cooperative performance audit into solid waste management

Report ID: 235

This report provides a regional overview of the process and outcomes of the cooperative performance audit in the Pacific region on solid waste management. The report records the achievements against Pacific Regional Audit Initiative (PRAI) objectives, including building performance auditing capacity within the member audit offices of the Pacific Association of Supreme Audit Institutions (PASAI), and the lessons learned from the first cooperative audit. In addition, the high level findings about solid waste management in the Pacific countries that were part of the audit, are presented.

Ten member audit offices from PASAI participated in the region’s first cooperative performance audit. The audit reports of seven of the ten SAIs – Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), Guam, Marshall Islands, Page 8 the Republic of Palau, Papua New Guinea (PNG), and Tuvalu – are now in the public domain. The remaining three SAIs participated in the cooperative audit but have not yet released their individual country reports. Because of confidentiality issues, these country reports cannot be identified in this regional report. As a result, when cross-country comparisons are made in this report, they will be referred to as PICT 1, PICT 2 and PICT 3.

Report of the Coordinated Pacific Region Performance Audit: Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction Strategies and Management

Report ID: 238

The countries of the Pacific are among the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Rising sea levels, cyclones, tsunamis, food security, and coastal erosion are real and daily threats. Pacific governments also face challenges in recovering from natural disasters and extreme weather events.

In response to these threats and challenges, PASAI Auditors-General undertook a Cooperative Performance Audit on climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction strategies and management.

Ten SAIs from eight Pacific Island states participated in the audit: Cook Islands, Federated States of

Micronesia (FSM), the FSM State of Kosrae, the FSM State of Pohnpei, Fiji, Palau, Samoa, Tuvalu and two other Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICTs). In line with the practice of previous regional overview reports, participating SAIs that have not yet released their audit reports are referred to anonymously — in this instance as PICT 1 and PICT 2.

Key findings

Audit findings from the eight published audit reports clustered around the following key performance themes:

governance arrangements, including legal and policy frameworks, mainstreaming, vulnerability assessments and strategy development, and coordination between responsible agencies

project implementation, including project-level governance—coordination and project management, financing and human resource capacity constraints

monitoring and reporting.

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.