The Office of the State Comptroller in Israel has, for the past 22 years, been involved in EDP audit, since the establishment in 1964 of a department of EDP audit. In 1982, it was decided that the time had come for the office to purchase its own EDP systems and a steering committee was set up for developing a program to computerize office systems. According to its terms of reference, the committee was to carry out a systems analysis, with the aid of an outside consultant, of both the administrative and professional functions of the office and recommend both the hardware and software, which even if acquired in stages, would lead to an homogeneous system. The members of the committee, serving in key positions within the office, represented the interests of the various departments, while the EDP audit department participated in all stages of planning and implementation
The systems analysis carried out, identified the areas that warranted computerization. The committee set priorities and proposed a development program of three main stages.
The processing and publication of a final audit report is often a long and arduous task. This involved the typing and retyping of drafts and letters, incorporating changes in language, style, format and often content as a result of replies received from audited bodies and opinions and remarks of various readers and advisors within the office. The introduction of word processing has aided the office in overcoming many of the delays involved in the process as all first drafts of audit findings are entered into the word processor and from then on only subsequent changes need be introduced. Much time and money has been saved by the elimination of the need to retype the whole draft at each stage.
Word processors were introduced in stages. One of the main conditions was that the system, both hardware and software, be ready for "turn-key" operation as it arrived. A further condition was that the output, received on flexible disks, and with the addition of typographic instructions, would serve as input for the government printer, without the need for typesetting. The first word processors arrived in June 1984, the choice being a type which can be used as a stand alone work station and which is also mobile. Twelve such stations were acquired. Results justified the choice. The State Comptroller's 35th Annual Report, issued in April 1985, had already been processed through this system. Later on another type was acquired with six work stations, which enables simultaneous typing and printing; the whole system will enable the preparation not only of our Annual Report, but also all other reports as well.
The State Comptroller in Israel is also Commissioner for Complaints from the Public (Ombudsman). The commission was set up in 1971 and by 1984 was dealing with some 6,000 complaints a year. The data follow up of the various stages of dealing with a complaint and the statistics for the annual report are processed on a computer at a service bureau, using a program prepared over ten years ago. The committee felt that the introduction of an in-house computer would enable the receiving of up to date information, on-line, on each complaint and the designing of a new program would provide new managerial tools, the need for which has arisen through the years.
The EDP needs of the Commission can only be provided for with the acquisition of a larger computer than that used for word processing. Such a computer would also answer the data processing needs of smaller systems within the office, such as annual planning of audit, and of administrative systems such as personnel, budget and bookkeeping. Also envisioned for this stage are the use of packages as aids in audit work such as "focus", spread-sheets, electronic sorting of working paper's and so-forth.
Since 1964, whenever the occasion warranted scanning or comparing computer files, use was made of the computer of the audited organization or of a service bureau. In the future, the office intends to carry out EDP audit with its own computer. Further, the office intends to design an information retrieval system, based on the use of selected key words, to facilitate easy and speedy access to the vast information included in the numerous audit reports published by the office over the years.
The information retrieval system is to be mainly a byproduct of the word processing system already acquired. In our word processing system, all information is recorded on flexible disks. An additional set of disks is prepared for back-up purposes, which are being stored until the information retrieval system is in operation. At that stage the information will be transferred to hard disk and by means of key words it will be possible to receive speedy access to a subject included in our numerous publications. This system will start operation in the third stage, when the computer system will have reached its full capacity.
The original long range plan envisaged audit with the computer at the third stage. Not because this is the system' of the least importance. In fact, all main systems in our country have been computerized in recent years, which has brought the need for audit with the computer to the forefront. The reason that audit with the computer was planned for the last stage was due to the fact that it would be necessary for the office to acquire its own full fledged system.
But it seems that five years is too long a period to plan in advance when dealing with computers. Changes have to be introduced because of experience gained and unforeseeable events external to our office. It so happened that a year and half after our original planning, the Accountant General's Office set up a network to include a direct connection from each government ministry to the computer at the Accountant General's Office. The terminal at the State Comptroller's Office would have an additional function-the extraction of data from the Accountant General's computer, concerning financial data from all government ministries for state audit purposes. That network also provides access to the computer of the Office Mechanization Center that acts as a service bureau for the Population Registry, the Bureau of Statistics, the Civil Service Commission and of her government agencies.
There are also thoughts of using a terminal to be located in the State Comptroller's Office that will be connected to the computer which serves all local authorities and audited agencies where our office has a permanent representative.