Tag: audit innovation

The field of auditing faces challenges in keeping pace with unprecedented changes in perspectives and tools brought about by contemporary technologies resulting from technological advancements and the growing reliance on artificial intelligence tools. The information technology environment is no longer merely an assisting vehicle to improve audit quality; rather, it has become the primary driver for redefining the concept of auditing, as affirmed by INTOSAI in its professional pronouncements, which advocate for the development of audit tools and methods to align professional practice with the digital environment. This has prompted the Accountability State Authority (ASA), as the Organization’s chair, to move swiftly in this direction by putting forward pioneering initiatives, such as the Maat Initiative, which was brought up to the 25th INCOSAI agenda in Sharm El-Sheikh in October 2025. This initiative represents a contemporary vision that reflects the importance of utilizing artificial intelligence in the development of audit work, particularly in terms of performance audits that focus on evaluating the performance of government entities to verify the efficiency of public spending, thereby supporting governance and the protection of public funds.

The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in the public-sector has reached a point at which Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) can no longer treat it as a distant or experimental matter. Emerging applications of agentic AI are beginning to reshape the work of professional knowledge services, including auditing. The pace of this development, driven both by private-sector commercial adoption and by the rapid evolution of open technical standards, makes technology relevant for public auditing today rather than at some point in the future.

The expanding complexity of digital governance has fundamentally reshaped the audit landscape. Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) today confront voluminous financial records, and rapidly evolving programme architectures that strain conventional audit methods. Sample based scrutiny, and conventional data analysis methodologies are increasingly inadequate to detect systemic risks, hidden relationships, and governance failures embedded within interconnected digital systems.

At present, countries around the world are facing significant pressure to strengthen public governance, achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, and fulfill commitments to preventing and combating corruption, wastefulness, and other negative practices. In this context, Sustainable Development Goal 16 highlights the importance of enhancing transparency, good governance, and combating corruption in all its forms. At the same time, the Abu Dhabi Declaration of the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI) also emphasizes and reinforces the role of Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) in preventing and combating corruption more effectively.

At the beginning of 2026, the Netherlands Court of Audit published a report on the use of taxpayers’ money to fund both voluntary and obligatory energy saving measures. To carry out the audit we relied heavily on AI to analyse the data and map the overlap between incentives and obligatory measures. In this article we explain how we approached the audit topic and the use we made of AI.

Data has become a central part for the management of complex public programmes. It helps to highlight trends, better understand impacts and identify the need for policy adjustments. For Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs), the question is therefore no longer whether data analysis should be used in performance audits and evaluations. Rather, the key issue is how data analysis can be planned, prepared and integrated into audit work in such a way that it is driven by the audit questions and contributes to better insights, more convincing recommendations and, ultimately, greater impact.

What do women with breast cancer actually pay for their treatment? Providing a rigorous answer based on available data poses a significant methodological challenge.

Performance auditing is undergoing significant transformation within the international public auditing community. Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) are increasingly moving beyond traditional economy-efficiency-effectiveness assessments toward more sophisticated evaluation-oriented approaches based on data analytics, impact assessment, risk analysis, and evidence-based policymaking.

Performance audit aims to secure government accountability by examining the economy, efficiency, and effectiveness of government activities. Although INTOSAI established universal standards for performance audit, the specific manners of how each SAI operates, shows different developmental stages and outcomes of their performance audits are all different depending on their own historical background and political, administrative landscape.

Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) have increasingly expanded their role beyond legal compliance and administrative regularity to improve public policies and the quality of services delivered to society. Despite this evolution, many audits still focus on bureaucratic processes, governance structures, and institutional indicators, without fully capturing how public-sector shortcomings affect citizens’ daily lives.

In recent years, intermediate cities have emerged as critical drivers of regional development, yet evaluating their public services poses unique challenges for Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs). To address this gap, Costa Rica’s SAI developed and implemented an innovative performance audit methodology specifically tailored to these distinct urban centers. This specialized framework advances traditional performance auditing by integrating a pragmatic assessment of public value, equity, and sustainable development within decentralized contexts.

Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) play an essential role in strengthening accountability and transparency within democratic governance systems. As public policy challenges become increasingly complex and interconnected, SAIs are expected not only to provide assurance, but also to contribute more directly to governance improvement and sustainable development outcomes. This expectation is reflected in INTOSAI-P 12, which emphasizes that SAIs should create value and deliver tangible benefits to citizens through stronger accountability, transparency, and public sector performance (INTOSAI, 2013). International discussions have also highlighted the growing need for SAIs to address cross-sectoral and long-term governance challenges, including sustainable development and governance resilience (INTOSAI Journal, 2021).

Over the past several years, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) estimated fraud facing the U.S. government using rigorous approaches that helped communicate the extent and impact of fraud in federal programs to Congress, the American public and antifraud professionals.

Environmental audits, especially in marine protected areas, face challenges in obtaining reliable evidence as environmental conditions often evolve gradually and are not completely reflected in routine monitoring records. Such challenges may necessitate an approach beyond conventional audit methods.

Across Supreme Audit Institutions, conversations about artificial intelligence (AI) often focus on technology. Discussions highlight models, data infrastructure, governance frameworks and future potential. Talk about AI is often shrouded in a certain air of mystery; practical applications tend to be conflated with more visionary ideas such as autonomous agents or even quantum computing. For many auditors, this can make AI seem complex − sometimes even intimidating.

This study presents a practical application of Benford’s Law to the expenditure data of two Greek municipalities, Messini and Trifylia, aiming to evaluate the extent to which these financial transactions conform to the expected digit distributions as defined by Benford’s Law. The primary goal is to assess the utility of Benford’s Law as a tool in public sector auditing processes and determine whether it can raise red flags to prompt further investigative procedures.

Audit institutions serve as guardians of transparency and accountability in various societies around the world. Yet for too long, their work has remained cloaked in dense language, legal references, and technical jargon that are largely inaccessible to the general public. While audit reports contain findings that can impact every citizen—from public transportation delays to failures in health systems—most people never read them. In an age where information is expected to be instantaneous, visual, and emotionally resonant, audit institutions around the world must reimagine how they present their work.

Due to climate change, communities across the world are losing their homes to floods, crops to drought, and coastlines to rising seas. The financial risks related to lacking or poor adaptation are also growing. Governments have been responding with their plans and promises—but adaptation on the ground remains fragile. The recent Global Cooperative Audit of Climate Change Adaptation Actions (CCAA) from 54 SAIs revealed why adaptation is failing—and what Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) can do to change that trajectory.

Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) and the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI) have increasingly positioned themselves as key actors in advancing sustainable development. Successive INTOSAI strategic plans (2017–2022 and 2023–2028) identify the contribution of SAIs to the implementation, follow-up, and review of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a strategic priority. This longstanding commitment has provided an enabling institutional framework that has stimulated numerous initiatives— often supported by the INTOSAI Development Initiative (IDI) — and yielded a growing set of tools, methodologies, and audit reports across diverse sectors and SDG targets.

Created in 1990, the Territorial Chamber of Accounts of French Polynesia has been based in Papeete (Tahiti) since 2000. Since then, as a supreme audit institution (SAI), it has carried out its judicial and audit functions. With a total staff of 13, including six magistrates, it contributes to informing citizens and improving local public management.

Office of the Auditor General of Somalia (OAGS) has achieved a significant milestone by implementing a digital Contract Management System (CMS), representing a pivotal step toward promoting transparency, accountability, and operational efficiency across public institutions. As part of a broader public financial management reform agenda, the CMS signals Somalia’s commitment to modernising governance structures and aligns with the global drive to digitalise public sector oversight. This experience offers valuable lessons to other members of the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI), particularly those in developing or fragile states where building transparent systems remains a pressing priority.

Some Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) have been implementing the Concurrent Control, a process created by the SAI of Peru, as it is a valuable tool for control of large projects. However, it is appropriate to raise innovative proposals aimed at improving the process of concurrent control in order to improve adverse situations identified by government auditors. Based on the lessons learned to date, it is important to improve the levels of effectiveness and efficiency in their interventions, with the goal of replicating their effect on the control by other SAIs that have decided to implement similar controls.