AUDIT METHODOLOGY

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The 5 Benchmarks for Continued Success

Regularity Audit

Ensuring that Financial Reports are True and Fair

The regularity audit is part of an overall process to uplift SAIs in the AFROSAI-E region to a professional standard. The process is in accordance with the ISSAIs (1000-2999); which means full compliance with all relevant ISAs and the additional guidance set out in the INTOSAI Practice Notes to the ISAs. An AFROSAI-E central technical team is responsible for maintaining and updating the manuals.

Financial and Compliance Audit Methodology

For our member SAIs, Financial and Compliance Audit make up the vast majority of their audit mandate. As a result, this is a priority focus area for us, as is demonstrated by the volume and intensity of the capacity building interventions throughout the year. The Financial Audit Manual (FAM) and Compliance Audit Manual (CAM) were adopted in November 2017 and includes the revisions from the ISSAIs approved a year earlier. During 2018 we started with the wide-scale roll-out of these manuals, starting with sub-regional workshops to train trainers on the new methodology. That was followed by in-country support visits, to assist member-SAIs with the customisation and implementation of the manuals.

Performance Audit

Evaluating Economy, Efficiency and Effectiveness

Resources are scarce and should be used in the most effective way possible. The performance audit is carried out to assess the use of resources, and provide guidelines to assist public entities in optimising their use of such resources.

The performance audit deals with deficiencies in economy, efficiency and effectiveness.

ECONOMY

is measured as the cost of resources used for an activity, with regard to the appropriate quality.

EFFICIENCY

is measured as the relationship between outputs, in terms of goods, services, etc. and the resources used to produce them.

EFFECTIVENESS

is measured as the extent to which objectives are achieved and the relationship between the intended impact and the actual impact of an activity.

AWARDS

AFROSAI-E, in co-operation with the Swedish National Audit Office (SNAO), has launched The Prize for the Best Performance Audit Report in the AFROSAI-E region. The idea is to stimulate the production of performance audit reports of high quality and by using the idea of best practice share results within our region.

  • Ghana

    The Management of Police Residential Accommodation | 2008
    VIEW REPORT

  • Namibia

    Service Delivery to Orphans and Vulnerable Children in the Country | 2009
    VIEW REPORT

  • Botswana

    The Coordination and Monitoring of the Implementation of the Community Based Natural Resource Management Programme | 2010
    VIEW REPORT

  • Tanzania

    The Monitoring, Evaluations and Budget Allocation for Maternal Health Care Activities in Tanzania  | 2010
    VIEW REPORT

  • Uganda

    The Implementation of Bujagali Interconnection Project by Uganda Electricity Transmission Company Limited | 2011
    VIEW REPORT

  • Mauritius

    Moving towards sustainable artisanal fishery | 2018
    VIEW REPORT

  • The Gambia

    Emergency Obstetric care in Public Health Facilities, Ministry of Health and Social Welfare | 2020
    VIEW REPORT

  • Kenya

    Specialized Healthcare Delivery at Kenyatta National Hospital - Waiting-time for Cancer, Renal and Heart Patients | 2012
    VIEW REPORT

  • Uganda

    The management of Uganda’s blood transfusion services | 2013
    VIEW REPORT

  • Tanzania

    The management of demand forecasting and distribution of essential medicines and medical supplies to health facilities in Tanzania | 2014
    VIEW REPORT

  • Rwanda

    Utilization and maintenance of irrigation and mechanization equipment | 2015
    VIEW REPORT

  • Tanzania

    Hygiene Control in meat production process | 2016
    VIEW REPORT

  • Kenya

    Provision of mental healthcare services in Kenya | 2017
    VIEW REPORT

  • Tanzania

    Performance Audit Report on Provision of referral and emergency healthcare services | 2019
    VIEW REPORT

Information Systems Audit

Examining Management Controls within IT Infrastructures

The AFROSAI-E information systems audit team capacitates members to perform audits that evaluate government’s ability to protect its information assets and properly dispense information, and determines whether the information systems adequately:

  • Safeguard assets.
  • Maintain data and system integrity.
  • Provide relevant and reliable information.
  • Achieve organisational goals effectively.
  • Consume resources efficiently.
  • Maintain effective internal controls.

The information systems audit is performed in a similar way as the financial audit, and requires the auditor to plan for the audit, evaluate and test controls, obtain necessary evidence and report findings.

Environmental Audit and Sustainability Assurance

Identifying Environmental Compliance and Corrective Actions

Many initiatives have been taken with an environmental focus for the AFROSAI-E region. We have had several interventions on environmental auditing in the region and courses, audits, guidelines, working paper templates and training exercises focused on introducing environmental auditing within the region.

2002 Medical Guidelines

  • Implementation of guidelines relating to compliance auditing of medical.

2005 Solid Waste Management Audit

  • SAIs from Ethiopia, Kenya, Mauritius and South Africa participated in an audit looking at solid waste management.

2009 Government Entities' Guideline

Guideline: Concerned with government entities, categorised into 3 groups:

  1. Government entities making or influencing environmental policy formulation & regulation.
  2. Government entities monitoring & controlling the environmental actions of others.
  3. Government entities whose operations impact/affect the environment in positive/negative way.

When planning its audit, the SAI should consider the risks and materiality of the Government environmental programme or activity, taking account of the resources involved, the importance of the environmental problem to be addressed, and the magnitude of the intended effect.

2016 Government/Municipality Environmental Audit

Integrating Environmental Audit Risks at Local Government/Municipal level

  • We developed an innovative audit approach to integrate environmental audit risks at local government level, in the normal audit activities of supreme audit institutions

2018 Coastal and Marine Environments in Africa

  • Cooperative project to audit coastal and marine environments in Africa. Six SAIs participated.

Quality Assurance

Ensuring the Fulfilment of Quality Requirements

AFROSAI-E has always emphasised the importance of Quality Assurance activities in the SAIs in the region.

1998 SAI Quality Assurance Models

  • Established a regional mechanism for carrying out quality assurance reviews in SAIs. Quality Assurance Models developed for conducting reviews at institutional and individual audit level.

1999 - 2000 Regularity Audit Reviews

  • Regularity audit reviews carried out, revealing a need for improved quality control systems in the SAIs.

2006 QA Importance Noted

  • QA identified as one of the 6 strategic imperatives, and pool of regional reviewers created for financial audits. Need identified for practical guidance in setting up or strengthening QA function in SAIs.

2007 IDI & AFROSAI-E Handbook

  • IDI and AFROSAI-E cooperate to develop the quality assurance handbook – frequently updated to account for new and updated standards.

2017 QA Certification Programme

  • Quality Assurance Certification programme developed in accordance with ISSAIs to further grow the quality assurance capacity in the region.