National Audit Chamber Peer-support Project 2018-2020

The overall objective of the support is to “Maintain and strengthen key audit-related capacities in NAC, to prepare NAC to play a strong role in the reform efforts of the Government of South Sudan to improve and sustain Public Financial Management Administration and accounting systems.” Depending on how the challenging situation in South Sudan develops, maintenance of the capacity of the audit office may be the most realistic ambition.
The project is for three years: May 2017 – April 2020. The actual progress and lessons learned of the activities starting in 2017, will determine the activities in the later years.
Advice to execution, reporting and dissemination of audits is a key part of the project. NAC has during the last years adopted various audit manuals and participated in general trainings in various areas, and now needs support to implement and utilize this knowledge in the office. NAC has underlined the need for on-the-job training. Providing support to the execution of specific audits will enable NAC to build capacity related to core activities. Three audits are prioritized to start in 2017 and three in 2018. These audits have been selected by NAC based on materiality, requirement of external support and likelihood of completion. Each audit involves the following standard activities:
• Pre-planning workshop including establishment of teams, planning of the audit and knowledge raising of the area
• Regular contact and feedback on e-mail and telephone
• Execution workshop
• Reporting workshop
• Printing of report for Parliament and brochure with summary of findings for public distribution
• Dissemination workshop after the report is tabled for stakeholders including auditee, PAC members, media, CSOs
The project also includes support to NAC participation at AFROSAI-E events. There are both annual AFROSAI-E events relevant where NAC participation is pertinent, but also specific trainings relevant for the selected audits. For instance, for the audit of the IFMIS, there is a relevant AFROSAI-E workshop on IT-audit programme where it is proposed NAC participate with members of the audit team doing the IFMIS related audit. NAC’s performance and impact is dependent on key stakeholders, especially the ministries and Parliament. The project therefore includes activities to sensitize key auditees and the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on NAC’s function, standards, operations, recent findings and how audit reports can be handled. This sensitization is regarded to be important to prepare for a stronger role of NAC in a more stable situation in South Sudan.
To ensure the various knowledge acquired in the audit process and through trainings are spread and institutionalized internally in NAC, the project also includes support to management systems and an annual knowledge sharing workshop for all staff. The management support will focus on establishing an overall annual audit plan and system for monitoring, reporting and quality control in NAC. Advise for development and dissemination of the annual SAI Performance report will also be provided, and linked to the sensitization of key stakeholders. All the expected outcome and outputs are linked to the NAC strategic development plan 2016-18.