| Goal 2 Report |
Institutional Capacity Building
In presenting his report to the congress, Capacity Building Committee (CBC) chair Ahmed El-Midaoui, First President of the Court of Accounts of Morocco, noted that capacity building is central to the INTOSAI strategic plan's vision of strengthening SAIs globally. It will allow them, he said, to help their respective governments improve performance, enhance transparency, ensure accountability, maintain credibility, fight corruption, promote public trust, and foster the efficient and effective receipt and use of public resources for the benefit of their populations.
To help achieve this, INTOSAI's strategic goal 2 focuses on institutional capacity building. Its objective is to build the capabilities and professional capacities of SAIs through training, technical assistance, the development of advisory and consultant services, the promotion of best professional practices, peer review, the development of partnerships with international development organizations, and other development activities. To that end, a steering committee and three subcommittees were established, and an inaugural meeting was held in London in March 2006.
CBC Steering Committee
The main tasks of the steering committee have been to coordinate the work of the CBC; evaluate whether the CBC tasks are consistent with INTOSAI's objectives; and develop partnerships with international development organizations, consistent with INTOSAI's independence requirements.
Links with IDI
The CBC has forged strong ties with the INTOSAI Development Initiative (IDI), which is an observer on the CBC steering committee. In this capacity, IDI actively participated in the two meetings of the CBC, which were held in London in March 2006 and in Rabat in September 2007. Going forward, IDI will report regularly on its activities to the steering committee. IDI was an important source of material for CBC subcommittee 1 while it was developing its Guide on Building Capacity in SAIs. IDI is developing a paper on how to work even more effectively with INTOSAI and the CBC.
Development of Partnerships with International Development Organizations
Through its steering committee, the CBC has forged links with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Since 2006, the CBC chair and the goal liaison have met regularly with senior officials at the World Bank, the IMF, and other international donors to outline the importance of support for SAIs in achieving common objectives related to good governance, accountability, and the fight against corruption. The World Bank and other donors participated as observers in CBC meetings in London and Rabat. A December 2007 presentation to a donor group at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development focused on developing a more strategic and integrated approach to donor funding, always with due consideration of INTOSAI's independence.
CBC Subcommittees
The CBC subcommittees have the following responsibilities.
Subcommittee 1 (chaired by United Kingdom with the Cayman Islands as vice-chair) aims to promote increased capacity-building activities among INTOSAI's members by
- strengthening institutional capacities;
- facilitating SAI capacity-building projects;
- developing and disseminating best practices on how to develop SAIs through training, technical assistance, and other professional development activities;
- collecting and disseminating information on the range of capacity-building projects undertaken by SAIs and providing a vehicle for proper coordination of such projects;
- developing a bank of generic training material on the key areas of SAI work;
- identifying opportunities for distance learning; and
- coordinating complementary and joint actions between INTOSAI and the INTOSAI Development Initiative (IDI).
Subcommittee 2 (chaired by Peru with Kazakhstan as vice-chair) aims to develop advisory and consultancy services by
- developing a database of experts and investigators in the public finance field who are available to participate in auditing programs;
- encouraging joint and coordinated or parallel auditing programs; and
- encouraging internship and technical visit programs organized by SAIs known for outstanding achievements.
Subcommittee 3 (chaired by Germany with Bangladesh as vice-chair) aims to promote best practices and quality assurance through voluntary peer reviews by
- assessing and documenting existing peer review arrangements in the INTOSAI community,
- fostering an environment where such voluntary reviews are seen as beneficial to both the SAI undertaking the review and the SAI choosing to undergo it,
- developing guidelines and providing best practice examples on how to undertake voluntary peer reviews and establish global and regional mechanisms for initiating them, and
- disseminating the results of peer reviews as appropriate and as agreed to by participating SAIs.
All three subcommittees have made substantial progress since their creation at the London meeting. The following sections summarize their activities.
Subcommittee 1: Promote Increased Capacity-building Activities
Consistent with the terms of reference and guidance resulting from the London meeting, subcommittee 1 launched three major activities.
Production of a Guide to Building Capacity in SAIs
CBC Subcommittee 1 has produced Building Capacity in Supreme Audit Institutions: A Guide.
The United Kingdom National Audit Office conducted wide-ranging consultations on drafts of this guide, including a March 2007 workshop in London to discuss the first version. After incorporating feedback, the revised guide was presented to the CBC steering committee in September 2007 and formally approved for launch at the INCOSAI in Mexico. The guide is available in English and French on the CBC Web site, which is hosted by the Moroccan Court of Accounts (http://cbc.courdescomptes.ma/).
Compilation of a Database of Capacity Development Projects
The Swedish National Audit Office produced a template for recording SAIs' capacity development projects and created a database to collate the results. Consultations are now complete, and the database is being populated.
Subcommittee Action Plan for 2008-2010
At a March 2007 meeting of Subcommittee 1 in London, potential activities for the coming 3 years were discussed. The resulting action plan was endorsed by the CBC steering committee in September 2007 and covers the following four key areas:
- disseminating the guide across the SAI community and among donors,
- building links with key development agencies,
- collecting and assessing training materials and case studies to support the use of the guide, and
- assessing the impact of capacity building among SAIs.
Subcommittee 2: Develop Advisory and Consultancy Services
Subcommittee 2 is charged with developing advisory and consultant services and a database of experts in public finance. It is also responsible for encouraging joint and coordinated or parallel auditing programs and encouraging internship and technical visit programs.
Genero Matute, Comptoller General of Peru and Chair of
CBC subcommittee 2, reported on progress made in
developing advisory and consultancy services.
Based on previous experiences, the subcommittee developed a survey on joint audits, internships, and technical visit programs. The survey also sought to identify technical advisory requirements and services and resources available in SAIs. The SAI of Fiji drafted the questionnaire, which was refined in consultation with other subcommittee members. The SAI of Peru, the subcommittee Chair, circulated the final draft of the questionnaire to the heads of other SAIs during June and July 2007. Some 90 responses were received, and a report on the questionnaire, drafted jointly by the SAIs of Peru and Kazakhstan, was presented at the CBC steering committee meeting in September 2007. Based on the survey, the subcommittee developed a work plan that included the following tasks:
- design a central coordinating SAI responsible for developing, implementing, and administering joint coordinated and parallel auditing programs;
- develop, disseminate, and approve the procedures and protocols needed to create a conceptual framework (including roles and functions, responsibilities and deliverables, levels of coordination and communication, and human resource and logistical management processes);
- identify and provide required technical and financial support and define the kind of incentives; and
- develop a system for disseminating experiences, audit reports, lessons learned, and successful cases through the INTOSAI Web site.
The subcommittee is also examining how to develop a database on potential experts and specialists. In particular, it is planning to
- analyze-in close collaboration with major SAIs and international bodies and organizations (namely IDI)-existing and available tools, systems, and databases with information on experts and specialists in public finances;
- set up a technical information sheet on which SAIs can record available information regarding their experts and specialists in public finances;
- define activities and responsibilities to compile and enter data needed to develop a database of experts and specialists based on the information received from member SAIs; a
- develop, implement, administer, and disseminate the database.
Subcommittee 3: Promote Best Practices and Quality Assurance through Voluntary Peer Reviews
Subcommittee 3 is in charge of promoting best practices and quality assurance through voluntary peer reviews. The German SAI, the chair of the subcommittee, developed a draft set of guidelines on peer reviews in consultation with other subcommittee members. This consultation was carried out through a meeting organized by the German Court of Accounts in Bonn in June 2007 and extensive e-mail exchanges.
Following the XIX INCOSAI, subcommittee 3 is undertaking the following activities:
- communicating the draft guidelines on peer reviews to all INTOSAI members (including those that have been involved in peer review) and incorporating their suggestions into the draft and
- collecting and disseminating information about SAIs' experiences in peer reviews to all INTOSAI members.
Germany, which chairs CBC subcommittee 3,
was an active participant at the congress.
IDI Report
Jørgen Kosmo, Auditor General of Norway and President of the INTOSAI Development Initiative (IDI), presented IDI's report to the congress. He noted that 2006 marked IDI's 20th anniversary, and he traced the evolution of the organization-from providing "one-off" training courses (that is, a series of stand-alone courses) for SAI staff to developing training capacity in SAIs and regional working groups to IDI's third stage of systematically cooperating with INTOSAI's committees and working groups.
The report also highlighted the central role that IDI's strategic plans play in guiding its work. Building on IDI's 2001-2006 plan, the 2007-2012 plan was developed over a 2-year period based on extensive consultations with stakeholders. The plan reflects IDI's move from classroom training to "training for impact" as part of comprehensive capacity-building programs. Fundamental to the plan is ensuring that training does not become an end in itself but rather a means of strengthening the capabilities of developing SAIs.
Principals of IDI participated in the Mexico
meeting: Per Engeseth, Jørgen Kosmo, and
Magnus Borge.
The report also includes results of evaluations conducted on IDI programs. IDI's Director General noted that "evaluation is a major tool to enable both continuous learning and performance improvement."Six areas of IDI's work were evaluated to determine whether the programs (1) created and sustained cadres of SAI staff with desired competences, (2) helped to strengthen the institutional capacity of the participating SAIs, and (3) supported IDI's principle of gender balance. In five of the six programs evaluated, all but one achieved the first two objectives to a high degree. The situation was different, however, with regard to gender balance. While more than 35 percent of training program participants were women, their post-training engagement in related fields was low in all cases.
In 2007, IDI focused on carrying out needs assessments to help guide its strategic direction for the future. In the first quarter of 2007, for example, IDI convened a group of international experts from SAIs to develop a toolkit for these assessments. The tool kit is now available, and IDI will use it to continue to work systematically with regions to identify specific priority needs for SAIs. All related interventions will be planned and executed in close cooperation with the regions and INTOSAI's Capacity Building Committee.
Additional information is available on the IDI Web site: http://www.idi.no.
INTOSAI/UN Platform on Open Audit Systems Established
At the congress, INTOSAI established a joint platform with the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) and the International Budget Project (IBP) to examine how SAIs can foster collaborative practices that will increase civil society participation in the audit process. The Korean Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) will chair the platform and develop its agenda. In a related development, the BAI has seconded a senior official to IBP for a year to assist in conducting research on open audit systems and serve as a liaison between IBP and INTOSAI.
During the 2 years preceding the congress, UNDESA and IBP collaborated on a program to promote greater openness in government audit systems and increase transparency in the audits and activities of auditors general. As part of this program, IBP and UNDESA convened a 2006 meeting in the Philippines for audit officials and civil society groups that are monitoring government expenditures in six countries to discuss opportunities for strengthening collaboration between auditors and civil society. (The April 2007 issue of this Journal included a report from this meeting.) Subsequently, IBP and UNDESA asked INTOSAI's Secretary General for his support in promoting collaboration between civil society and public audit agencies, and the Secretary General invited IBP and UNDESA to attend the congress and present their experiences and ideas on open audit systems.
At the congress, the INTOSAI Secretary General chaired a plenary session at which staff from IBP, Fundar (a Mexican budget research group), UNDESA, and Mexico's SAI discussed civil society experiences in auditing and how collaboration between auditors and civil society can improve accountability in the use of public funds. The presentations provided examples of ways in which SAIs and civil society organizations (CSO) have collaborated and complemented their respective agendas.
- Civil society groups in South Korea have used the citizen audit request system to influence the audit agenda of the BAI.
- The Commission on Audit of the Philippines conducted a performance audit on infrastructure projects using an audit team composed of its staff and staff from local CSOs.
- In Mexico, civil society investigations on alleged corruption in a government health program led to an SAI audit that corroborated the CSO's findings and led to changes in the management of the health program.
- In India, vigilant citizens used audit reports that had been shelved by the executive to demand an inquiry into failures in a food entitlement program for poor households; this inquiry subsequently led to the dismissal of several officials responsible for the program.
During the question and answer period following the presentations, many participants expressed their interest in and support for greater collaboration between auditors and civil society organizations. Several, however, emphasized the need to ensure that such collaboration does not jeopardize SAI independence.
For more information on this initiative, contact Vivek Ramkumar of IBP at ramkumar@cbpp.org.