IDI/Relevant SAIs Workstream

Acting in the public interest places a responsibility on SAIs to demonstrate their ongoing relevance to citizens, legislators and other stakeholders. ISSAI 12 encourages SAIs to show their relevance by appropriately responding to the needs of citizens, the expectations of different stakeholders, and the emerging risks and changing environments in which audits are conducted. ISSAI 12 also urges SAIs to have a meaningful and effective dialogue with stakeholders about how their work facilitates improvement in the public sector. This enables SAIs to be a credible source of independent and objective insight, supporting beneficial change in the public sector.
The SAI environment is changing rapidly, with increasing volumes of data, the introduction of new technologies and the adoption of Agenda 2030, which places greater emphasis on integration, coherence, inclusiveness and multi-stakeholder engagement. IDI supports SAIs in engaging with SDGs through the IDI-KSC Auditing SDGs programme. This programme contributes to INTOSAI’s cross-cutting priority 2, which calls on SAIs to contribute to the follow-up and review of the SDGs. The INTOSAI Strategic Plan recognises the need for SAIs to demonstrate relevance to citizens and respond appropriately to changing environments and emerging risks. Regarding this, IDI has also been supporting SAIs in conducting IT audits, using a risk-based approach to auditing, engaging with stakeholders and exploring technology-based learning solutions such as eLearning and blended learning.
Under this work stream IDI aims to support SAIs in demonstrating ongoing relevance to stakeholders by fostering innovation in audit and education practices, leveraging technological advancements and facilitating audit impact.
RELEVANT SAIs COMPONENT 1
FOSTER INNOVATION IN AUDIT AND EDUCATION PRACTICE
IDI supports 73 SAIs and one subnational audit office in conducting a performance audit of preparedness for implementation of SDGs. This support will continue in 2019 for SAIs in different regions based on where they are in the audit process. A compendium of audit findings and lessons learned will be developed in 2019. This publication is expected to provide an overview of audit conclusions from the audit of preparedness, share success stories, experiences and lessons learned by SAIs.
IDI will continue to support SAIs in auditing SDGs. After supporting them in auditing preparedness for the implementation of SDGs, IDI will start support for audits of implementation of SDGs from 2019 onwards. In 2019, IDI will partner with key stakeholders to develop an audit model for auditing implementation. This model will be developed as a part of a digital education initiative, which is expected to be an innovation in both audit and education practice. The audit model for auditing implementation of SDGs will be used in supporting cooperative audits of implementation of specific goals and targets e.g. gender, poverty, hunger, education, public health, climate change etc.
IDI will partner with stakeholders to hold Green Hat: Innovation Exchange series. Green Hat events will be designed and delivered in face to face workshop and webinar formats with the purpose of generating and exchanging innovative ideas and solutions for SAI audit and education practice.
RELEVANT SAIs COMPONENT 2
LEVERAGE ON TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENT
Government entities use a range of IT tools and technology in their processes and operate in a data-driven environment. Under this component, IDI will support SAIs to strengthen and apply their capacity for data analytics. This may include helping SAIs understand the technological changes in their environment, the legal and ethical implications of using data in audit process and the formulation of data analytics strategies which are appropriate to SAI’s local context. IDI will also help SAIs in exploring, selecting and using data analysis tools in different stages of financial, performance and compliance audit processes. The use of data analytics will be piloted in some of the cooperative audits facilitated by IDI.
In working further with eLearning and digital education in 2019, regional pools of LMS administrators and IDI certified eLearning specialists will be created in French and Arabic for CREFIAF and ARABOSAI. ASOSAI will be supported by providing the updated eLearning specialists certification programme material for continuous professional education of training specialists and ISSAI facilitators.
RELEVANT SAIs COMPONENT 3
FACILITATE AUDIT IMPACT
IDI has been facilitating ISSAI-based cooperative audits as a means of supporting SAIs in implementing the ISSAIs. After supporting audit quality, it is also crucial to facilitate audit impact so that the high-quality work done by SAIs leads to value and benefits for citizens. Under this component IDI plans to identify high-quality audits performed by SAIs as a part of its cooperative audit programmes, and to support SAIs in conveying key messages from those audits and engaging with key stakeholders to facilitate implementation of audit recommendations.
IDI also plans to expand its cooperative audit support model by adding a phase of facilitating audit impact for those SAIs that publish high quality audits in a timely fashion. IDI will partner with relevant bodies such as the International Budget Partnership (IBP) and utilise synergies between this component and the well-governed SAIs work stream component on stakeholder engagement.