The 23rd International Congress of Supreme Audit Institutions (INCOSAI 23). Photo nhandan.com.vn

HÀ NỘI – The Supreme Audit Institutions (SAI) is recognised as playing a role in promoting efficiency, accountability and transparency in public administration.

This is critical for achieving national development goals and priorities which were internationally applauded.

The basic changes in public audit and policy globally have created a new environment and perspective for SAI.

Recent changes in the SAI working environment include the endorsement of the 2030 agenda for sustainable development and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); data revolution; and the adoption of a Professional Declaration Framework of International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI) and the Criteria Statement for INTOSAI Auditing.

The current context needs a better quality of work and a better audit approach. It requires SAI to explore and think more deeply about SAI's role in government accountability.

The challenges faced by countries in achieving the agenda 2030’s goals require re-orientation of government accountability systems based on performance indicators and achievements which are essential for good governance.

The INTOSAI community has long recognised the need for a change in accountability from "accountability for process" to "accountability for performance".

Although SAI's core functions, roles and independence should not be affected by short-term trends, some aspects of SAI's roles may need to change and evolve in accordance with constant changes of governments.

SAI may consider the development of public audit methods adapted to increasingly complicated public governance – a prerequisite for the successful implementation of the national goals and the 2030 agenda.

At the 23rd International Congress of Supreme Audit Institutions (INCOSAI 23), the members discussed three key issues to promote SAI’s role in implementing national goals.

First was to change strategy, consider the approach and strategic direction for public audit.

Most members believed that the strategic auditing method should focus on different factors of policy performance from setting goals to strategic planning, implementing programmes and policies, evaluating, reporting and learning.

SAI could contribute to solving general management issues and planning strategies through evaluating the completeness of systems that underpin strategic governance and also assessing overlaps or gaps in the strategic plan of fields of public interest.

SAI could also play an important role in assessing the reliability of government reports on achieving national goals by performing audits and making recommendations on the quality of the reporting system and gaps in statistics, vital archival data, management, co-ordination of reporting processes and the consistency and depth of information provided.

SAI could focus on defining risks for national and international benefits, solving common issues such as climate change, social welfare, cyber security and demographic changes.

SAI needed to find solutions for capacity improvement for entities responsible for developing strategies and action plans as well as promote public awareness, citizen participation and data transparency.

Second was to consider non-auditing activities and promote auditing impact.

SAI takes a strategic position in the constitutional structure to review and control the entire budget cycle and operation of government agencies helping knowledge accumulation, skills enhancement and organisational and institutional power in order to stimulate positive improvement and change in government agencies.

According to surveys, SAI provided consulting services in a non-audit form, including reports, information addendums, web platforms, best practice systems, internal control audit methods and Q&A documents.

Non-audit services could enhance good governance while maintaining integrity, objectivity and independence, which is an important prerequisite of SAI.

To maintain its value, SAI could conveniently integrate its consulting activities in finding solutions to improve management efficiency with the audit function.

However, such integration could sometimes be seen as a threat to SAI's independence and authority.

In order to mitigate these risks, SAI advisory activities should be conducted in a way that protects and promotes the principles of the Lima and Mexico Declarations along with ensuring the independence and best use of public funds in a reliable, neutral and objective ways.

SAI needs to maintain their professionalism and reputation and only give an opinion related to areas that SAI had audited.

Becoming a trusted advisor requires soft skills such as effective communication, intelligence, building and maintaining trust based on a highly professional position.

To achieve this goal, it is important to develop the capacity to advise the team of auditors.

Auditors' capacity is an important success factor for advisory services in public administration. If the auditor understands the area being audited and makes meaningful recommendations that clearly address the real problems, it is more likely that the recommendation will be implemented and have a positive impact.

Third was to improve auditing capacity via SAI’s analysis activity.

To maintain independence and compliance, SAI must ensure work quality which is dependent on the capacity of the auditors.

To bring this into full play, SAI should build the capacity to manage, analyse, interpret and evaluate data for audit purposes as well as to improve skills of evaluation and forecast and develop skills of programme evaluation, data and artificial intelligence (AI) analysis, and system thinking.

To integrate innovative approaches, SAI needed to train “auditors of the future” who can address future challenges including the use of data and AI analysis methods and forms of innovation, exchange of knowledge and forecasts.

SAI's accumulated experience needs to be continuously synthesised and reviewed to determine good practices and effective toolkits.

This knowledge would be used to develop auditing, evaluation and advisory guidelines, action frameworks, and training programmes. These documents could be used internally and disseminated to SAI's stakeholders.VNS