Making informed planning decisions early in the audit process is key to completing audits in a timely manner. Many teams use historical information to determine how long an audit will take. But every audit and every audit organization is different, so it is impossible to...
Over the last five years, agencies in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s public sector have undergone fundamental transformations—including restructuring, implementing governance mechanisms, and activating control requirements—aimed at improving their performance. The General Court of Audit (GCA), the country’s Supreme Audit Institution (SAI), has sought to contribute to these efforts by...
It is commonly held wisdom that every staff member in a Supreme Audit Institution (SAI) is responsible for audit quality, and that SAIs should ensure quality at every stage of the audit process through standard operating procedures. This is certainly true, especially for routine audits. However, in the case of audits that are complex...
In a 1995 case against Israel’s State Comptroller, the Israeli Supreme Court stated in its ruling that the “Comptroller has no discretion as to whether it should commit itself to the task of preparing an opinion as required of it; it is a mandatory obligation,” and directed the Comptroller to render an opinion on the required subjects.
Nearly a quarter of a century later, the Comptroller’s office, the nation’s Supreme Audit Institution...
Since it was established nearly 30 years ago, the State Audit Office of Vietnam (SAV) has become progressively more independent, in accordance with the principles of the 1977 Lima Declaration, the 2007 Mexico Declaration, and more recently, the...
SAIs are called upon to lead by example, as stated in ISSAI 20, which indicates transparency is a powerful force in combating corruption, improving governance and promoting accountability. The SAO of Hungary has employed several mechanisms over the years to enhance transparency and promote...
To better administer public resources and fight corruption, the Office of the Comptroller General of Ecuador—the country's Supreme Audit Institution (SAI)—is working to develop an anonymous hotline through which employees and members of the public can securely...
Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) play a vital role in oversight by promoting transparency, verifying government account accuracy and reliability, evaluating spending compliance, assessing such spending's efficiency and effectiveness, and supporting the fight against corruption. This article explores the relationship between transparency and...
Corruption, the abuse of public authority or trust for private benefit—as defined by the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI)—comes in various forms and behaviors. Corruption hinders national development; damages public service performance, reputation and credibility; compromises service delivery; and causes hardship to citizens. SAIs are vital to the fight against corruption by...
ublic participation is generally defined as activities by which people's concerns, needs, interests and values are incorporated into decisions and actions on public matters and issues. Incorporating direct forms of public participation in oversight work can enhance citizen engagement and inform Supreme Audit Institution (SAI) decision-making, as the Comptroller General of the Republic of Costa Rica (CGR) discovered when considering the transfer of $4 billion...