International Journal of Government Auditing – January 2012
Spotlight on ISSAIs
Second Meeting of the ISSAI Harmonization Project Group
From November 29 through December 1, 2011, the International Standards of Supreme Audit Institutions (ISSAI) Harmonization Project Group held its second meeting at the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) in Washington, D.C. The project group, chaired by the SAI of Denmark, comprises members from 13 SAIs from around the world. It is charged with revising level 3 of the ISSAI framework—fundamental auditing principles—to ensure that the ISSAIs
- describe the general role and auditing function of an SAI and are relevant and useful for all INTOSAI members,
- provide an overview of and further references to the full set of ISSAIs, and
- provide a consistent set of concepts and an improved link between all levels of the ISSAI framework.
Based on the outcome of the group’s first meeting and feedback from the Professional Standards Committee (PSC) Steering Committee, the group is framing these revisions by considering the fundamental principles inherent in all public audits, as well as their specific application to financial, performance, and compliance audits. Toward that end, the group gathered at GAO to discuss four new documents:
- ISSAI 100: The Essence of Public Sector Auditing,
- ISSAI 200: Principles of Financial Auditing,
- ISSAI 300: Principles of Performance Auditing, and
- ISSAI 400: Principles of Compliance Auditing.
Each of the four drafting subgroups presented a high level overview of the status of the current draft, including the drafting approach being used, and any outstanding issues or concerns.
A common question among the subgroups was how the four new ISSAIs should fit together. Should each group be producing a document that can stand alone and contain the relevant principles for each audit type? Or should the project group aim to produce a series of documents that fit together and reference one another? The group also discussed how the draft ISSAIs would fit into the broader ISSAI framework, the level of authority they would have, and the extent to which the entire INTOSAI family would be able to adopt and apply them. They held lengthy discussions about how an SAI would cite compliance with the ISSAIs, considered various compliance statement options, and discussed the relationship between the institutional prerequisites of level 2, the fundamental principles of level 3, and the audit guidelines of level 4. They took special care to ensure that they produced public audit principles that were not only exemplary but also inclusive and achievable for the wide variety of SAIs that make up INTOSAI. The goal of the harmonization project is to produce fundamental auditing principles at level 3 for all SAIs to use and to provide a common set of auditing principles for the entire INTOSAI family.
Although not all issues and questions were resolved, the meeting facilitated a hearty exchange of ideas, advanced the overall goals of the harmonization effort, and identified several new tasks for moving forward. Each subgroup will continue to refine its draft, a new subgroup will focus on making the drafts structurally similar to facilitate their use, and the project group will raise several questions to the PSC Steering Committee for clarification. Overall, the 3-day ISSAI Harmonization Project Group meeting resulted in a fruitful discussion of dilemmas and considerations for revising the ISSAIs, and the group members parted ways with much to consider and achieve prior to their next meeting in May 2012.
For additional information on the ISSAIs, see www.issai.org. For additional information on the harmonization project, please visit its website: www.psc-intosai.org/composite-280.htm.