Jam-packed year kicks off with multiple training interventions
We’ve wasted no time to start the new year off with several exciting events and interventions, the first of which was hosting members of AFROSAI for an Institutional Strengthening meeting in January. This was followed by a meeting with the Good Financial Governance network partners, namely ATAF, AFROPAC, AFROSAI and CABRI to further agree on the way forward on the Declaration on Illicit Financial Flows. In addition, meetings were held with the INTOSAI IDI and Donor Secretariat to discuss areas of collaboration to support SAIs in the region.
Training of specialists in Performance Audit (29 January – 2 February 2018)
The Auditor-General of South Africa (AGSA) employs specialists in fields other than audit, to support the performance audit function within the SAI. From 29 January – 2 February 2018, AFROSAI-E supported the AGSA with a training workshop for these specialists to further strengthen their capacity in performance audit, to release the potential of these kind of specific skills. The group of 19 participants included a variety of specialists including a quantity surveyor, civil engineers, a statistician, educators, health practitioners, economist etc.
During the workshop the specialists were taken through the fundamental principles of performance audit with an emphasis on their role to add value to the process.
Regularity Audit sub-regional train-the-trainer workshop (5 – 17 February 2018)
The first of three sub-regional workshops to empower members to fully implement our new regularity audit methodology, kicks off this week with the 24 participants from Southern Africa SAIs gathering in Pretoria, South Africa. The West Africa and East Africa sub-regional workshops are scheduled for March and April respectively.
During the 2017 Technical Update, the new Financial Audit Manual (FAM) and Compliance Audit Manual (CAM) were adopted as the official new AFROSAI-E Regularity Audit manuals. As part of our regional rollout strategy, we will be training trainers during the three sub-regional workshops, prior to commencing with in-country workshops. These trainers will be responsible for rolling out the new methodologies within their respective SAIs.
Institutional Capacity Building Framework (ICBF) workshop: 5 – 9 February 2018
The AFROSAI-E Institutional Capacity Building Framework (ICBF) is based on a self-assessment principle, with the objective of SAIs taking ownership of their own development, linked to their strategic planning process and quality control management system. It also guides the Secretariat to provide the appropriate support in terms of the developmental areas and designing material to assist SAIs.
Although the ICBF have been effectively used in the region for over a decade, the tool has been consistently reviewed and updated to remain relevant to the changing environment. Amongst other developments, the adoption of the SAI Performance Measurement Framework (SAI PMF) resulted in a review to ensure alignment between the tools, as far as was possible.
To provide members with the opportunity to gain greater clarity and context on the requirements of the ICBF questions and the applicable criteria that must be considered to provide an accurate self-assessment, an in-depth ICBF workshop is taking place this week. Participants from 12(??) SAIs are attending this workshop in Pretoria.
The 2017 State of the Region: ICBF Self-Assessment Report will be available by mid-2018.