AFROSAI-e _Collaborative Audit for Integrating Environmental Risks in an Audit at Local Government

Report ID: 263

During the 2015,  AFROSAI-E Governing Board and Technical Update Meetings, the role of SAIs in addressing critical environmental challenges through their day-day audit activities was discussed. They decided to design a simplistic way to use SAIs’ existing financial and human resources to identify possible areas of improvement supported by solution-driven  planning towards environmental focus and decide to conduct an Environmental Risk Project.

The SAIs of South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Botswana, Sierra Leone, Rwanda and Tanzania decided to participate in the program, which comprised, among others, the development of an e-learning programme, in collaboration with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), the execution of parallel audits and the development of a joint publication.

Find attached (in a merged file) the joint publication explaining the project methodology, as well as the  AUDIT REPORT ON MANAGEMENT OF SOLID WASTE IN HUYE DISTRICT – 2016 preparared by SAI Ruanda, as a result of the audit conducted in the framework of the Project.

Source: https://afrosai-e.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Integrating-Environmental-Audit-Risks-in-Audit-at-LG-level-Brochure1_00.pdf

JOINT REPORT ON THE RESULTS OF INTERNATIONAL COORDINATED AUDIT ON PROTECTION OF THE BUG RIVER CATCHMENT AREA FROM POLLUTION (FOLLOW-UP AUDIT)

Report ID: 270

In 2006, the Supreme Audit Institutions  of the Republic of Belarus, Republic of Poland and Ukraine conducted international coordinated audit on protection of the Bug River catchment area from pollution in 2006 (in hydrography of Belarus and Ukraine Bug River is called Western Bug River).

Given the importance and urgency of the issue of purity of the Bug River basin waters for people, living on its territory, as well as the necessity to implement the EU Water Framework Directive requirements, the SAIs of Poland and Ukraine in 2014 initiated an international coordinated audit on Protection of the Bug River Catchment Area from Pollution (follow-up audit), subsequently supported by the SAI of Belarus.

To carry out this audit in 2014 the participants agreed on a Common Position on co-operation for coordinated parallel audit , which defined the purpose, object and general matters of the audit, its scope and limitations, methodology, forms as well as cooperation and coordination procedures.

The purpose of the international coordinated follow-up audit was to assess the implementation of the SAIs’ recommendations, which were provided after previous audit, completed in 2006. Also it was supposed to analyze the activities of the responsible authorities of Belarus, Poland and Ukraine on addressing the issues, raised by the previous audit, namely:

Source: https://rp.gov.ua/IntCooperation/IntAudits/?id=58

Joint Study Main characteristics, findings, messages of the coordinated audit of the Graduates’ Career Tracking Systems

Report ID: 278

In 2015, as one of the subprojects of the Network on Europe 2020 Strategy Audit, the State Audit Office of Hungary (as coordinator), the Bulgarian National Audit Office and the Romanian Court of Accounts decided to carry out a coordinated audit to allow for better use of shared knowledge for competitiveness – revealing the good practices of graduate career tracking systems. 

The objective of the audit was to reveal good practices of career tracking systems, with special regard to tracking the careers of graduates employed in another Member State.

The cooperative audit was a performance audit focusing on effectiveness. The Romanian Court of Accounts also focused on efficiency in its country-specific audit. The State Audit Office of Hungary, besides carrying out the audit, performed an analysis as well.

The final product of the cooperative audit was a joint study with four conclusions and messages supported by the experiences and audit findings of all three SAIs; as well as three good practices that the participating SAIs collected over the course of the audits and which they would like to draw to the attention of other countries.

In addition, all three SAIs have summarized the main characteristics and findings of their national audits with special regard to those which may provide useful lessons for other Member States in developing graduate career tracking systems.

Source: https://www.aszhirportal.hu/en/international-relations/international-experience-about-graduates-career-tracking

Underlying Risks to Sustainable Public Finances

Report ID: 304

Parallel Audit Report to the Contact Committee of the heads of the SAIs  of the Member States of the European Union and the European Court of Auditors by the SAIs of Finland, Latvia, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia and Sweden (Coordinator).

The parallel audit project was endorsed by the Contact Committee at its meeting in June 2015. The participating SAIs followed an agreed broad common audit approach allowing them to conduct their audit work according to their national mandates. Each SAI was free to decide the scope, audit questions and methods for their respective audit while recognising the common approach. This parallel audit report is thus a synthesis of six audits conducted independently by SAIs at the national level. It contains general observations and conclusions but no common recommendations.

The aims of the parallel audit was to 1) draw attention to risks that need to be addressed in order to maintain fiscal sustainability based on recommendations from international organisations; and 2) assess how the governments dealt with the recommendations they received.

This audit was based on reviews of country specific reports and recommendations from the European Union (EU), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) issued in the period 2011–2015, (the audited period). The participating SAIs have mapped the various recommendations to their respective country as well as the government responses to these recommendations. They have furthermore audited the public availability of the recommendations at national level as well as national follow-up procedures. A number of SAIs have moreover assessed the effectiveness of government measures.

A general observation of the parallel audit working group is that recommendations issued by the three international organisations tend to overlap within each country. This might indicate that the international organisations have pinpointed relevant areas of concern. The overall conclusion is that multilateral surveillance of economic policy, even when the recommendations are not binding, constitutes good opportunities for governments to learn from best practices and to improve their policies.

SOURCE: https://www.eca.europa.eu/sites/cc/Lists/CCDocuments/Underlying%20Risks%20to%20Sustainable%20Public%20Finances/Parallel_Audit_Report_EN.pdf

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