Each year the Training Unit of the State Comptroller's office provides a programme, concentrating both on audit theory and practice, with the objectives of providing'. employees with the opportunity to gain advanced professional expertise in their fields and for improving methods and techniques used in audit work. Training courses are revised and new ones are added as staff responsibilities change. In recent years emphasis has been put on providing courses in the field of EDP auditing systems as well as in management accounting, with a greater stress on the use of modern audio-visual techniques in the training programmes. The office also encourages employees in continuing their advance higher education and provides financial assistance to employees participating in university courses in areas relevant to audit work. Each year a number of employees are granted assistance to attend major universities in Israel.
The "training programme for 1983 includes intensive courses in various fields. The main courses provided in the programme consist of a two week course for new employees; a week course in the audit of public enterprises; three week course in managerial development"; a course in oral expression; and a course of study of the English language. Several on-going courses are also planned, including management accounting; a preparatory programme towards taking the qualifying examinations for receiving EDP Auditor certification; and written composition.
Individual study-days are also planned on subjects of state audit, including topics such as: raising capital in the stock exchange; the supervision of banks in Israel; municipal services; housing construction; "closed economies"; overland transport; government subsidies in various sectors of the economy. Study-days in which reviews of some of the outstanding audit reports included in the previous year's Annual Report are also being planned, as well as pre-audit background reviews of large scale government projects requiring inter-ministerial coordination and thus a "horizontal" approach in carrying out comprehensive audit. Two basic courses in specific audit techniques are planned: audit through means of the computer and basic accounting methods.
Several new training techniques are being discussed, including the use of "simulation games" in which employees will participate in simulated work situations-auditor and auditee, auditor and superior-in which the employees will be able to analyse professional problems on all levels of the audit situation. Also being discussed is the setting up of a monthly "club" in which the senior officials of the office will have the opportunity to meet with senior officials in government service to discuss pertinent matters of concern on a more informal basis.
The focus of training in 1983 is a massive effort in the field of EDP. The office has decided to purchase a system of hardware and software which will serve the needs of state audit, as well as the administrative needs of the office; it will also be the nucleus of an information retrieval system to improve the effectiveness of state audit. All the office's employees-professional, as well as clerical staff-will have to undertake an intensive course of several days, in order to master the technique of the use of word processor terminals that serve the system.
A full time course in state audit has recently been instituted at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem within the Department of Public Administration with the objective of furthering the idea of creating a "School for Public Audit" in Israel.