Coordinated Audit on Information Technologies Governance – Executive Summary

Report ID: 316

IT governance is the part of corporate governance that seeks to ensure that the use of IT adds value to the business with acceptable risk. To that end, IT governance seeks to avoid or mitigate deficiencies in the management of an institution, such as inadequate planning processes, the presence of IT projects without results and IT contracts that do not achieve their objectives, reflecting in loss of quality and efficiency.

The Coordinated Audit on IT Governance was carried out in the framework of the activities foreseen in strategic goal 3 (Knowledge Management) of OLACEFS' Strategic Plan 2011-2015. This audit was carried out with the participation of the SAIs of Bolivia, Brazil (Coordinator), Chile, Costa Rica, Peru, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama and Paraguay; and with financing from the IDB.

The objective of the audit was to assess the situation of information technology (IT) governance in the OLACEFS member countries, based on the audits carried out in representative institutions of various segments of the public administration of each participating country. The audit sought to obtain information that would allow the development of strategies to raise the level of maturity of IT governance and the dissemination of the knowledge and techniques used in the field work carried out.

As an audit criterion, in addition to the applicable legislation of each country, the controls provided for in the ISO/IEC 27002:2013 standard, a code of good practice for information security management; in the ISO/IEC 27005:2008 standard, which deals with information security risk management; in the ISO/IEC 38500:2008 standard and in the Cobit 5 of Isaca, which provide models of good practice for information technology governance, were adopted.

Source: https://www.olacefs.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Executive-Summary-of-the-Coordinated-Audit-on-IT-Governance.pdf

Auditing European added value — a case study based on a joint audit of the Rail Baltica project

Report ID: 354

Based on the input from the audit teams from the Supreme Audit Institutions of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia that participated in the Cooperative Audit to the Implementation of the Rail Baltica Projec, Urmet Lee, Director, and Jüri Kurss, Senior Advisor, officers from th  e National Audit Office of Estonia prepared a case study. In the case study the author  share their experiences of applying the EU added value (EAV)concept, a posteriori, to the joint audit.

For the purpose of their article, they decided to look into the question of whether the information gathered and the findings determined in the course of the joint audit of the Rail Baltica project would allow identification of the extent to which EAV has been /is being created or (possibly even unintentionally) jeopardised. They conducted a small case study and carried out a set of written interviews in August 2020 with the RBTF audit team leaders of the three Baltic SAIs. 

Find attached the case study published in the ECA Journal (Source: https://medium.com/ecajournal/auditing-european-added-value-a-case-study-based-on-a-joint-audit-of-the-rail-baltica-project-561788f0ea35)

To know the experience of the cooperative audit to the Rail Baltica project read the joint report in this catalogue: https://intosai-cooperativeaudits.org/catalog/report/implementation-of-the-rail-baltica-project-cooperative-audit

Coordinated Audit For Assessment of the Infrastructure of Fundamental Education Public Schools

Report ID: 384

The  Court of Accounts of Brazil, with the participation of nineteen (19) Subnational Courts of Audit and eight (8) TCU external control secretariats in the states, conducted a coordinated audit, the objective of which was to assess the quality and availability of facilities and equipment in public basic education schools. They examined, in the period 2011-2015, the resources of the Money Direct at School Programme (PDDE) and the Articulated Action Plan (PAR-infrastructure), as well as the administrative controls for these programmes, also rating the information provided by the schools visited to the 2014 Basic Education School Census.

They visited 679 public schools in the different regions of the country. By means of a methodology for the Calculation of the Weighted Score of the Schools, the index “Average Score of the School Infrastructure was created”, which classifies the infrastructure of the schools as good, acceptable, bad or precarious, taking into account both the availability and the conservation of the facilities. When grouping the scores of the schools visited per geographical region, it was observed that the majority of the schools classified as precarious and bad is located in the North and Northeast of the country. So far as the location within the same state is concerned, it was observed that the majority of the schools of the capital cities enjoy a better situation, with lower incidence of schools being classified as precarious and a higher number of schools in an acceptable situation.

Source: https://pesquisa.apps.tcu.gov.br/#/documento/acordao-completo/*/NUMACORDAO:1007%20ANOACORDAO:2016%20COLEGIADO:'Plen%C3%A1rio'/DTRELEVANCIA%20desc,%20NUMACORDAOINT%20desc/0

**El informe aparece como parte del Acuerdo Plenario 1007/2016-TCU-Plenário

Auditoría Coordinada sobre Obras Viales - Resumen Ejecutivo

Report ID: 388

El documento consolida los principales resultados y oportunidades de mejora identificadas en la Auditoría Coordinada sobre Obras Viales realizada en el marco del Grupo de Trabajo de Auditoría de Obras Públicas (GTOP) de la Organización Latinoamericana y del Caribe de Entidades Fiscalizadoras Superiores (OLACEFS). Esta auditoría se realizó con el propósito de evaluar, por medio de auditorías de cumplimiento, la calidad de obras viales de construcción y mantenimiento de once países: Brasil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, México, Paraguay, Perú y República Dominicana.

La auditoría coordinada tuvo como objetivo evaluar, por medio de revisiones de cumplimiento, la calidad de las obras viales de construcción y mantenimiento bajo la administración directa del gobierno, abarcando desde los estudios preliminares hasta la ejecución de la obra. Debido de la participación de diversos países en la auditoría, fue necesario emplear criterios de auditoría que fueran transversales y comunes al objeto auditado. Además, se observó que la legislación y las normas técnicas aplicables
a las obras viales en los diversos países, aun cuando tienen muchas similitudes entre ellas, también son ricas en diferencias.

El informe consolidado completo también está disponible en: https://intosai-cooperativeaudits.org/catalog/report/auditora-coordinada-de-obras-viales

Fuente: www.olacefs.com/auditorias-coordinadas/

OLACEFS Coordinated Audit on Environmental Liabilities

Report ID: 398

The management of solid and hazardous waste, such as mining waste, as a result of economic activities, is of great relevance, given the negative effects that its lack of management or inadequate management can have on the population, natural resources and ecosystems, which increases the risk of producing environmental liabilities.

Within the framework of the activities of the Technical Commission on the Environment (COMTEMA) of the Latin American and Caribbean Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions (OLACEFS), a Coordinated Audit on Environmental Liabilities was carried out to address this issue.

The Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) of Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Honduras, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru and Dominican Republic; as well as the Audit Institutions (SAIs) of the Argentinean Provinces of Buenos Aires and Santa Fe participated in the audit. It was coordinated by the SAIs of Mexico and Peru. In addition, the audit was supported by the German Cooperation through GIZ.

During this audit, the state management for the prevention and integral management of environmental liabilities was evaluated. The audit assessed the actions carried out by the governmental entities responsible for the management (prevention/control and/or restoration) of environmental liabilities and their effect on the mitigation of the damage they cause to the environment. 

As a result of this evaluation, it was possible to analyse the results of the actions taken by 88 public institutions responsible for environmental liabilities in 9 Latin American and Caribbean countries and in 2 Argentinean provinces.

The findings of the Coordinated Audit show that the policy of attention to environmental liabilities, designed and implemented by the institutions evaluated, is not consolidated, which has led to a limited contribution to the preservation of the environment, of the actions of prevention and control of the generation of environmental liabilities and the remediation of existing ones.

Source: https://www.olacefs.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/03-Resumen-Ejecutivo-ACPA-11oct16-English_REVISADO_Setrad.pdf