Leveraging a Coalition to Bring Change and Engaging Parliament for SAI Belize’s Need for Greater Independence 

Author: Maria Rodriguez, Auditor General of Belize

SAI Belize is not a fully independent institution. While its legal mandate allows for audits to be carried out as deemed necessary, the Office is dependent on respective line ministries for the hiring of staff and approval of budget. In March 2025, I was appointed  as the new Auditor General, and have dedicated the first six months of my term to carry out awareness sessions with different stakeholders to introduce the conversation of why SAI Belize should enhance its independence. 

SAI Belize has begun a coalition to bring change and engage Belize’s Parliament to discuss the SAI’s need for greeter independence. This process began with the acceptance to participate in the INTOSAI Development Initiative’s Global SAI Accountability Initiative (GSAI) project in December of 2022. The initiative aims to enhance the capacity and performance of SAIs by mobilizing stable long-term capacity development support. Shortly after, SAI Belize prepared a master plan outlining the project components and a memorandum of understanding, engaging into a two-year project that will support SAI Belize in its strategic development priorities. Thereafter, SAI Belize was successfully partnered with SAI India in a peer-to-peer partnership. 

One of the components of SAI Belize’s GSAI priorities was: “Strengthened SAI Independence and Legal Framework.”  Under this component, SAI Belize was tasked to inform stakeholders on its constitutional obligations. On March 2025, SAI Belize issued a Circular Memorandum with subject, Timeline for detailed activities for Examination of Audit Reports by the Joint Public Accounts Committee. This Circular Memorandum provided the legal requirements and roles and responsibilities of key stakeholders such as Parliament in their role in examining the Auditor General’s Annual Reports. This Circular Memorandum was shared using the Government of Belize’s intranet system and was addressed to the Office of the Governor General, Chief Justice, Solicitor General, Financial Secretary, Cabinet Secretary, Chief Executive Officers of each line ministry and Heads of Departments. The Memorandum was also placed on all of SAI Belize’s social media platforms and our official website. Thereafter, for the first time, the Office of the Auditor General was invited to present on its roles and functions during an Orientation Workshop for Honorables and Ministers in April 2025. At this meeting, I, as the recently appointed Auditor General, , emphasized to the Parliament that we share the same goals of transparency and accountability. 

In May 2025, the Office once more issued and distributed another Circular Memorandum on the subject of Timeline for submission of Annual Financial Statements.  This allowed stakeholders, interested parties and the public to learn about the legal requirements with regards to Constitutional role of the Office of the Auditor General, as well as other key players in the accountability cycle. 

In June 2025, the Office of the Auditor General participated in the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association seminar for Members of Parliament, which was  a Post-Election Seminar. Here, the Office presented its role in supporting the Joint Public Accounts Committee (JPAC)’s oversight of public expenditure, how its work is carried out, the importance of timely follow-up on JPAC’s recommendations and tracking implementation by government departments, common challenges in the JPAC-Audit relationship, and reflections on strengthening collaboration between the Office of the Auditor General and the National Assembly. By now, the conversation was very open between both parties, driven by the growth in communication and understanding. 

Under the GSAI Project, the Office of the Auditor General held a stakeholder engagement event in August 2025. This engagement fostered knowledge sharing on Public Financial Management, Introduction of Public Auditing, including the use of standards and the audit work of SAI Belize with invited stakeholders. Finally, with the support of the INTOSAI Development Initiative (IDI) and our technical support partner, SAI India, we presented on SAI independence, and requirements of SAIs as per the International Standards for Supreme Audit Institutions (ISSAIs). This event engaged senior Members of Parliament, including Joint Public Accounts Committee members, Senators, and Members of the House of Representatives. They were receptive to the information and knowledge shared. We also hosted representatives from the Accountant General’s Department, who are directly linked to the functions of the Office of the Auditor General. Lastly, we included representatives from donor agencies to understand our challenges as a country and as a SAI. 

SAI Belize is early in its journey towards SAI independence, but we hope to continue the positive progress we have made in creating greater awareness of the value and role of the Office of the Auditor General.  Future plans for SAI Belize include incorporating the strategic outcome of Enhancing Independence of SAI Belize  in its upcoming 2026-2030 strategic plan.  Through this strategic outcome, we aim to continue working towards creating awareness of the importance of SAI Belize’s independence and Parliament and staff. It also focuses on engagement with respective authorities in charge of personnel and finance, as SAI Belize still depends on these authorities to obtain funds and key human resource functions like hiring personnel. There are also plans to conduct another stakeholder engagement event on public financial management (PFM) as a follow-up session in February 2026, with support from a donor agent present in the last stakeholder engagement event. The stakeholder knowledge sharing event will target SAI Belize staff, the Accountant General’s staff and members of the Joint Public Accounts Committee. These will be technical sessions aimed at creating awareness and enhancing knowledge on the subject matter.

The partnership between SAI Belize, IDI and SAI India led to our Office starting the conversation about independence. Empowered by this partnership, SAI Belize’s journey towards independence continues by us sharing our roles and expectations, and our functions and challenges to show why full independence should be one of our outcomes.