International Training Programme on "Computers in the Audit Process"
SAI Oman conducted a training programme on "Computers in the Audit Process" from 1st to 10th November 1999 under the auspices of the Arab Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions (ARABOSAI). 30 participants from the Supreme Audit Institutions of Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen, besides the host country, attend this programme.
The course, which was wholly in Arabic, was targeted at managerial and supervisory personnel with experience in planning, direction and supervision of audits, preferably with existing or potential responsibility for decisioin making on IT related matters. It provided an appreciation of the major issues pertaining to the use of computers in the audit process, including
The course consisted of a mix of computer-based presentations, case studies, group discussions and presentations by participants, as well as a project involving hands-on sessions for analysis of computerized data using a generalized audit software package. The course also included presentations on SAI-Oman's strategic framework for IT and live demonstrations, using remote dial-up access, of its Intranet and key application systems.
The programme was designed in-house, based on the INTOSAI IT Audit Training Courseware developed by the INTOSAI Standing Committee on EDP Audit, and was delivered wholly by staff members of SAI-Oman.
Report - International Training Programme in Performance Auditing (ITP 43rd)
Department of the Auditor General of Pakistan held a five > week Intensive Training Programme (ITP-43rd) at Performance Audit Wing, Lahore, Pakistan. The programme was offered to Audit Managers of SAIs.
The programme was held from 31st January to 4th March, 2000 and was participated by twenty officers from SAIs of China, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, U.A.E. and Pakistan.
A nice social programme was also blended into the international programme to show the foreign participants around various parts of the country as also the life and colours of our society. The participants equally enjoyed the training and social programme and left for their respective countries with fond memories of the visit to Pakistan.
Participants of the Intensive Training Programme in Performance
Auditing
(ITP- 43rd) held in Lahore, Pakistan
International Training Programme
The International Training Centre of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, New Delhi has been organising three International Training Programmes every year in different areas of Audit and Accounts since 1979. Forty seven such programmes have been successfully completed so far which benefited 1209 officers from Asian, African and East European and Pacific regions.
During the year 1999-2000 the following International Training Programmes were organised:-
Participants of the International Training Programme on "Audit of Rural
Development" held from 17th January- 25th February 2000, at New Delhi.
In the above training programmes 30 SAIs sent 68 officers and the programmes were funded under various assistance schemes.
Indo Nepal Joint training programmes were started in 1998. The first training programme was held from 16.8.99 to 11.8.99. The 2nd programme was held from 1.8.99 to 28.8.99.
The 2nd programme like the previous progra.nme was also held in two batches of 15 days each. In all, four senior officers from SAI-lndia participated in the programmes as faculty members.
The areas of audit covered under this programme were Audit of Public Works, Audit of Central Accounts and Revenue Audit.
The third and the last programme will start in August 2000. The main objective of this joint programme were:
In the year 1999 two ASOSAI sponsored training activities were held - the first training course was a seminar on "Environmental Auditing" which was held in Korea from April 14-20, 1999. The seminar was the first one in ASOSAI on the Environment Audit and proceeded with the following two sub-themes:
There were 27 participants from 26 member SAIs who attended the seminar.
The main highlight of the course was the initiative by SAI-Korea for setting up a website for the seminar and providing relevant information including country papers and recommendations adopted for the seminar.
ASOSAI covered the cost of airfare, accommodation, meals, and per diem while the other expenses were borne by SAI-Korea.
Paricipants of seminar on "Environmental Auditing" which was held in Korea
from April 14-20, 1999
The 2nd ASOSAI sponsored training programme was held in Kuwait from November 13-17, 1999. The theme of the seminar was "Audit of Internal Control". The main objective of the course was that the participants would be able to recognise the internal control systems and objectives. During 5 days course duration discussions were held on the following topics:-
1. Internal Control System and Objectives.
2. Internal Auditing.
3. Internal Auditing factors under the Computer Systems.
4. The role and responsibility of the auditors in examining and evaluating the Internal Audit System.
Audit of Internal Control Programme
ASOSAI Training Course on Social Security Audit June 6-14, 2000 Beijing
1. Introduction
1.1 Sponsored by ASOSAI and hosted by the National Audit Office of the People's Republic of China, the ASOSAI Training Courseon Social Security Audit was successfully held during June 6-14, 2000 in Beijing, the People's Republic of China with the concerted efforts of ASOSAI members. 43 formal participants attended the courserepresenting 35 countries and regions (including one non-ASOSAI member, Kiribati and China's two Special Administrative Regions).
Mr. Li Jinhua, Auditor General of China attended the opening ceremony of the event and hosted a welcome banquet for all participants. Mr. Liu Jiayi, Deputy Auditor General of China attended the closing session and held a farewell dinner for the participants. Mr. Masayuki Watanabe from the Board of Audit of Japan representing Mr. Akira Kaneko, Secretary General of ASOSAI attended the major events of the course.
1.2 Before the course, the participating SAIs prepared and submitted their country papers according to the themes and sub-themes, which were defined as a result of wide consultation. Each participating SAI addressed the three sub-themes with different priorities and provided many informative and valuable cases in the papers. During the course, participants discussed on issues of their common interest and concern based on each presentation and exchanged views and experiences on the practice of social security audit. A common understanding on some issues was reached through the courseas follows:
2. Sub-Theme I The Role of SAI in Social Security System
2.1 Firstly, all ASOSAI member countries have established social security systems. Most of the systems cover both social benefits financed by the state and social insurance jointly contributed by employers and employees. Each SAI widely introduced their respective social security systems in many aspects including pension, medical care, unemployment benefits, financial assistance for needy persons, and benefits for employment injury, maternity, child support, disability, widows and widowers, funeral and survivors assistance etc. However, these systems vary from one another in terms of coverage and extent. Many countries have realized in the development of social security system that extending the umbrella of social security schemes to cover all citizens is very important for the development of the entire economy and society. Some participants hold that SAIs should have a role when governments introduce or approve social security schemes.
2.2 Secondly, to make the best use of the limited financial resources, each member country has exercised rigorous controls on the expenditure of state financed welfare funds and provident funds, where SAI has played a special role. The role of SAI is more obvious for those SAIs who have two arms, one in accounting control and one in auditing functions. For example, all payments on behalf of federal and provincial governments in Pakistan, including payment for pension and gratuity to government employees are subject to pre-audit by various forms under the control of SAI; The Audit Bureau of Jordan and the Audit Office of Cyprus also carry out extensive pre-audits. All participants have been widely aware that accurate budgeting for social security schemes depends on the knowledge of the actual fund demands. However, many countries are encountered with the problems in different degrees that social security departments or agencies do not have accurate or timely information about their social security beneficiaries. This leads to inaccurate budgeting.
2.3 In respect to the timely control of social security funds, the Supreme Audit Board of Indonesia has its special features. The board reviews auditees' reports including quarterly and annual accounting reports, management reports, internal control reports as well as internal audit reports so that it is able to exercise an effective real time control on the management of social security funds. In another case, the Comptroller and Auditor General's Office of India has achieved good results in exercising a timely control of social security funds through computerization and efficient capture of data.
2.4 Thirdly, all participants emphasize that an adequate internal control system is very important for an accurate, safe and effective operation of all social security schemes. Different countries may have different requirements on internal controls or use different methods of control, but all the participating countries have either direct or indirect provisions for key control points such as controls on fund budgeting, beneficiaries' qualification and payment. In addition, rules and standards have been established in some countries for revenue and investment activities of social security funds to secure regular contributions and income. It is widely recognized that SAIs should pay adequate attention to internal controls and institute a system of regular review where condition allows.
2.5 Participants also specify that it is very important to share information between government departments given the varied social groups covered by social security and the changeability and uncertainty of the conditions. Computer data matching exercise between departments has demonstrated its usefulness and is regularly used in Hong Kong, the Special Administrative Region of China. However, many participating SAIs find that information sharing is not sufficient in their countries. Therefore, a convenient, efficient and safe communication system and close inter-departmental cooperation should be the goal of the participating countries' common endeavor.
3. Sub-Theme II - Auditing the Collection, Management and Use of Social Security Funds
3.1 Every participating SAI carries out financial audits on the collection, management and use of social security funds with more audit efforts devoted to funds from the state finance. The objective of the audit is to give an opinion on the truthfulness and regularity of social security funds.
3.2 Firstly, in the financial audit of social security funds, many SAIs including SAI of China set their priority on the prevention, control and detection of frauds and irregularities. In this aspect, different countries have their own special features. For example, a series of fraud control audits in payment agencies is currently being undertaken by Australian National Audit Office. The objective of the audit is to assess the framework and system in place against the fraud control policy of the Commonwealth and to determine if arrangements operate effectively in practice to prevent, control, detect and investigate fraud.
3.3 Participants are of the opinion that some irregularities and frauds discovered during audit sometimes arise from the agency staff's lack of understanding of social security schemes. Therefore, auditors should also evaluate whether social security departments have fully performed their role in policy propagation and their service has met the required quality. This aspect is closely related to performance audit.
3.4 Secondly, social security funds have extensive investment grounds in some countries and SAIs have thus assumed a role in auditing the investment aspect of social security funds. For example, there are specific and detailed rules and regulations in the Philippines and Thailand for different forms and projects of investments where the money derives from social security funds. These rules and regulations form the basis for audit review. It is generally held that in addition to factors like safety, yield and fund liquidity which should be taken into account in the audit of fund investment, social benefit should also be taken as an important perspective. The Auditor General's Office of Sri Lanka stated in the paper that it is crucially important for auditors to exercise due professional care in auditing fund investment.
3.5 Thirdly, most of the participants believe that a sound audit database is very important, which can be of a great assistance to auditors in conducting analysis and reviews. The Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India pointed out that the nationally accepted social indicators and the available social statistical data should be fully utilized and be further processed to form the basis for the establishment of auditors' own database, which are important for effective data matching, especially in the computerized environment.
4. Sub-Theme III - Auditing the Implementation and Effectiveness of Social Security Programs
4.1 As member SAIs give more attention and audit resources to performance audit at the present, all participating SAIs show their intention to achieve greater progress in evaluating the implementation and effectiveness of social security programs. In practice, the quality and experiences of this type of audit are much varied among participating SAIs.
4.2 Firstly, participants are of the same opinion that the complete understanding of the background and objectives of different social security programs is a basis for any audit evaluations and a precondition for auditors to be able to provide valuable audit recommendations. As social security programs are closely linked with the ever-changing social-economic environment, this type of audit is more demanding on auditors' quality than financial audit, which has a comparatively fixed approach and mode. To meet this challenge, the National Audit Office of China and the Auditor General's Department of Pakistan proposed that regular training system should be set up. They hold that through the training auditors should not only be able to learn audit techniques and skills, but also to study and understand associated laws, regulations, management rules and development trends and further more to improve their ability to propose recommendations for program improvement. The Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India takes the view that SAI should take due note of the complexities of social problems, the innovative and promotional nature of social programs.
4.3 Secondly, some SAIs have formulated performance audit standards to guide the operations of performance audit, which include the audit of the implementation and effectiveness of social security programs. Many SAIs hold that it is both essential and difficult to create a set of effective performance indicators and it also requires auditors to exercise proper judgement in practice. Some participants pointed out that the complexity of social insurance and investment programs might lead to the risk of wrong judgement.
4.4 The Auditor General's Office of New Zealand has worked out audit guidelines on performance measures and set special requirements on relevance, completeness and understandability of the measures. Due to its rich experience in performance evaluations, the office is often invited by various departments to comment on proposed measures before they are finally adopted.
4.5 It is also noted that sometimes the Auditor General of Cyprus may be consulted by the auditee at an early stage, or participate in the committee for the development of indicators as an independent observer with the right to make suggestions.
4.6 Thirdly, most of the participants are of the view that this type of audit does not necessarily require auditors to cover each and every aspect of social security programs! SAIs should define audit priorities and emphasize the audit effect. For example, the Commission on Audit of the Philippines holds that the objective of audit is to look for area of operations that need improvement to fully achieve the objectives of the programs. The Board of Audit of Japan put more audit strength on problematic programs. It stresses that while disclosing problems auditors must point out the causes and provide corrective measures so as to achieve the maximum audit effect.
4.7 Fourthly, some of the participating SAIs carry out regular audit on the efficiency and effectiveness of the management and services provided by social security agencies. This is not different from the performance audit targeted on other public bodies. Both quality and cost of services are taken into account. Auditors should also pay attention to the social benefits derived from the services.
