PAS Guideline 3 Safeguarding quality in the performance audit process – 2013

The credibility and effectiveness of Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) is highly influenced by the extent an SAI can establish and maintain a high level of quality in its audit products. INTOSAI has therefore issued ISSAI 40 „Quality Control for SAIs‟ in September 2010. ISSAI 3000 „Implementation guidelines for Performance auditing‟ and ISSAI 3100 „Performance audit guidelines; key principles‟ also offer SAIs guidance as to ensure quality in performance auditing. This document builds upon those standards and makes them concrete by sharing good practices. The INTOSAI Standards state that the SAI should establish systems and procedures to ensure that audits are conducted in accordance with relevant policies. The head of the SAI is responsible for the set and functioning of the overall quality framework (from recruitment, to planning, reporting and ex post control). The audit manager is responsible for the day-to-day management of the audit and the quality of the audit work. In this paper we describe both the organisational aspects of ensuring quality: i.e. the quality framework in place, and quality control at engagement level.