International Journal of Government Auditing – April 2009
In the last issue of the Journal, I promised that I would write about INTOSAI’s progress in developing its strategic plan for 2011–2016 in this issue. Preparations for the new strategic plan began at the XIX INCOSAI in Mexico City in November 2007, and the plan is to be ready for translation and printing in the summer of 2010 so that we can present it at the XX INCOSAI in South Africa in November 2010. We are now half way through this period and, therefore, it is appropriate to look at our achievements to date and the outlook for the coming months.
 |
In the July 2008 issue of the Journal, I tried to explain why we need a strategic plan using the image of SAIs as mountain climbers. Every SAI wants to reach the top of the mountain, but we have different paths to climb—some have to face steep rocks or waterfalls and others have to fight a snowstorm. The plan helps us think ahead, find solutions through mutual efforts, and go forward together in a synchronized manner.
The strategic plan itself can be compared to a pyramid. Many of us who participated in the XIX INCOSAI visited the ancient city of Teotihuacán,“The City of the Gods,” the largest and most important pre-Aztec city of central Mexico, about 50 km northeast of modern Mexico City. Settled by 400 B.C., the city had a population of about 200,000 in its prime, making it one of the largest cities in the world at the time. It was the region’s major economic and religious center. It had some 2,000 single-story apartment compounds as well as great plazas, temples, a river channeled into a canal, and palaces of nobles and priests.
The Pyramid of the Sun in Teotihuacán.
The biggest building there is the Pyramid of the Sun. One of the largest structures of its type in the Western Hemisphere, it rises 66 meters above ground level and measures approximately 220 by 230 meters at its base. About 765,000 cubic meters of material were used to build the pyramid. It is amazing how this structure, and of course the pyramids in Egypt, could have been built without the help of the machines and technology we have today.
I would like to compare the structure of the Pyramid of the Sun to the structure of our strategic plan. The pyramid has four sides, each of which is equally important. If any one of the sides had been missing, the pyramid could not have been built. Similarly, our current strategic plan is based on four equally important strategic goals, which support each other in the same way as the four sides of the pyramid:
- Goal 1: Accountability and Professional Standards
- Goal 2: Institutional Capacity Building
- Goal 3: Knowledge Sharing and Knowledge Services
- Goal 4: Model International Organization
In our plan, the building blocks are the dedicated work of our committees, working groups, task forces, and individual SAIs, resulting in layers of results, better qualified auditors, improved working methods, benchmarks, and standards. Each of the four strategic goals is needed and complements the other goals:
- we have to increase our accountability and conduct our work in accordance with the highest professional standards;
- in order to do so, we need to build the capacity within our organizations;
- and we have to work together and share knowledge so SAIs are not reinventing the wheel; and, lastly,
- we must aim high together, building a model international organization that others respect and look upon as a role model.
But let’s go back to our progress on the new plan and look at some milestones. At its March 2008 meeting in Washington, the Finance and Administration Committee laid down our approach to updating the plan:
- The activities and programs supporting each of the four goals would likely change, but mission, vision, and goals would remain the same.
- The chairs of the four goals were given the responsibility to lead the initial work under their respective goals.
To assist the chairs in their work on the new strategic plan and to ensure that the updates were harmonized, letters were sent to the goal chairs to initiate the work and lay out a common approach when gathering information for the update.
During the summer of 2008, the goal chairs worked on their proposed strategies in a thorough and professional way, asking for input from subcommittees, working groups, and task forces and consulting steering committee members, among others. The introduction to the plan and the existing strategies and programs sections were updated, taking into account what had been implemented under the current plan and the expected outcomes by INCOSAI 2010.
A first draft was presented to the established Task Force on the Update of the Strategic Plan, which is chaired by the SAI of the United States, at a meeting in London in October 2008. Based on discussions with the task force at that time, the draft plan was divided into two documents.
The first document is called Report on Strategic Plan 2005-2010: Platform to build the next strategic plan on. This document describes the results and achievements from implementing the first strategic plan and presents the INTOSAI organizational structure. By giving an overview of the results for each goal at the end of the plan period, the report provides an information basis or platform for the second strategic plan, which will be adopted by the XX INCOSAI in South Africa in 2010. It presents the existing strategies, programs, and organizational structure for each goal, describing the progress that has been made and the anticipated situation when the new plan is launched.
The second document, Strategic Plan 2011-2016, focuses on the future without giving any historical information. Its structure is the same as that of the current plan. INTOSAI’s mission, vision and goals remain the fundamentals that the plan is based upon. This document presents the proposed strategies for the next strategic plan period as drafted by the goal chairs.
During the Governing Board meeting in November 2008, no major changes were proposed to the draft. But as the plan is updated, it will need to reflect the concepts and issues contained in the donor funding program of the Global Partnership for Supporting the SAI Community. I hope that these updates can be incorporated before the next Governing Board meeting in November 2009.
The two draft documents mentioned above will soon be presented to you for your consideration and feedback. I look forward to receiving your responses.
In the July issue of the Journal, I will write about the importance of knowledge sharing, as I have just returned from the first meeting of the Knowledge Sharing Steering Committee in India.
Please feel free to contact me at astrup@rechnungshof.gv.at if you would like to comment or give feedback on issues related to the implementation of INTOSAI’s strategic plan.