International Journal of Government Auditing – January 2003
Burkina Faso
Audit Profile: The State Audit Office of Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso, formerly Upper Volta, is a landlocked West African country bordered by Mali to the north; Niger to the northeast; and Benin, Togo, Ghana, and the Ivory Coast to the south. Formerly a French colony, Burkina Faso has been independent since 1960.
History of the State Audit Office
The State Audit Office (Inspection Générale d'Etat or IGE) is Burkina Faso's supreme audit institution. Two institutions preceded it: the General Financial Inspection Service, which still exists, and the General Inspection Service of Administrative Affairs, which no longer exists. In November 1988, a new supreme auditing structure, the General Commissariat for State Auditing, was created. The 1991 constitution and May 1993 implementing legislation created the IGE and placed it under the authority of the Prime Minister.
Independence
Although the IGE is under the Prime Minister's authority, the State Auditors are independent in relation to the administrations, services, and other entities that they audit. The auditors are free to evaluate the facts they examine and draw their own conclusions.
Duties
By law, the State Audit Office is charged with
- auditing all the public state services, local government bodies, corporations, and all national bodies with a public service mandate in order to ensure that they comply with the laws and instruments which govern their administrative, financial, and accounting operations;
- examining the quality of operations and management of the abovementioned services;
- auditing the utilization of public funds and the legality of the operations of administrators, officers, accountants, and controllers of funds and materials; and
- recommending measures to raise the quality of public administration.
A May 1995 decree granted the State Auditor General and the State Auditors the legal authority to perform these duties and also requires them to adhere to certain ethical standards.
Organization
To fulfill its duties, the IGE has a cabinet with its own secretariat; a documentation, IT, and communications service; and a protocol office. In addition, the Secretariat General is charged with administration and technical coordination of the IGE's departments. Its duties include
- preparing the IGE's annual program of activities;
- maintaining cooperative relationships with the auditing offices of the ministerial departments;
- ensuring the continual professional development of State Auditors; and
- preparing the annual report of activities.
Also, there are three technical directorates: Administration and Public Finances;
Public and Parastatal Enterprises, and Mixed Enterprises; and Projects, Programs
and Nongovernmental Organizations.
Within its area, each directorate is responsible for
- initiating investigations as soon as an irregularity in the management of public goods is identified;
- whenever appropriate, ordering the implementation of all preventive and protective measures considered to be necessary; and
- cooperating with the judicial authorities to prevent the appearance of impropriety in the management of public funds or of goods and materials acquired with public funds.
The Directorate of Administrative and Financial Affairs is responsible for IGE's administrative and financial management.
Personnel
The State Audit Office of Burkina Faso has a staff of 50, 20 of whom are State Auditors. The selection criteria for State Auditors include probity, physical well being, intellectual aptitude, and professional experience (at least 10 years in public administration).
The office is currently under the leadership of State Auditor General Leopold Andre Joseph Ouedraogo. Three Auditors General have preceded him since the office was set up in November 1988: Etienne Traore, Arzouma Alphonse Ouedraogo, and Laurent Emmanuel Salembere.
At the General Assembly of AFROSAI in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, in October
1999, Mr. Ouedraogo assumed the presidency of the organization and its governing board for 3 years. Burkina Faso has also been a member of the INTOSAI Governing Board since the last INCOSAI in Seoul, Korea, in October 2001.
Reports Issued
The Auditor General addresses periodic reports and an annual general report to the Prime Minister, who then informs him of action taken on the recommendations in the reports. Since its inception, the State Audit Office has produced 135 reports, an average of 15 a year. Also, all general and technical auditing offices of ministerial departments and institutions are obliged to send copies of their reports to the State Audit Office.
Outlook for the Future
The State Audit Office has set the following goals for the future:
- review the law and all the statutory instruments governing the State Audit Office "in order to align it with domestic realities and within the international context, in other words, to broaden the scope of the IGE.";
- implement the recommendations in the government's "Plan of Action to Strengthen Management of Budgetary Expenditure 2002-2004"; and
- bring online electronic networking for the entire office.
Initiatives to this end have been taken in agreement with the Ministry of the Economy and Finance, in order to
- promote and ensure access to audit reports within the limits accorded by the legislation;
- make more effective ex post audits of the management of grants to statutory administrations;
- revise the legislative acts governing the State Audit Office in order to give it responsibility for combating corruption;
- ensure the proper functioning of the committee responsible for monitoring the follow-up of recommendations of the State Audit Office and the dissemination of its work;
- strengthen the State Audit Office's relationship with each ministry's internal auditor (known as the General Auditing of Finances and the Technical Auditing of the Ministries).
For additional information, contact: Inspection Générale d'Etat, 01 B.P. 617,
Ouagadougou 01, Burkina Faso; tel: ++226 30 10 91; fax: ++226 30 57 04.