SNAO 2009

A performance audit team from the Auditor General of Namibia has been selected to receive a newly founded prize for best performance audit report produced by the AFROSAI-Es members. The reports title is “Service delivery to orphans and vulnerable children in the country”. The news was made public 12 April by the Swedish Auditor General Jan Landahl at the AFROSAI-E Governing Board Meeting held in the Lesotho capital Maseru.

The Auditor General of Sweden, Mr Jan Landahl, hands over the SNAO Trophy to the Auditor General of Namibia, Mr Kandjeke.

Click here to view the winning report.

Background

The prize is financed by the Swedish National Audit Office. The purpose of the prize is to promote the development of performance audit among African Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) and to highlight the efforts of the individual performance auditors. The prize can hopefully facilitate sharing of experience and benchmarking of best practice in performance audit within the region. The prize is awarded to one team in the region on a yearly basis.
The Swedish National Audit Office organised a review team consisting of four members from the Supreme Audit Institutions of the Netherlands, Norway, the United Kingdom and Sweden. These SAIs are all involved in partnerships with individual members of AFROSAI-E. This published Review Team Report is focused on the assessment and the qualities of the winning performance audit. The teams also comments on all the nominated reports that passed the formal assessment. Those comments are sent separately to each respective SAI and audit team.

Bengt Sundgren, performance audit manager of AFROSAI-E: Congratulations to the winning the prize! What made you win the Prize?

We were interested by the idea to win the price from the beginning. The challenge was to reduce the production time to be able to participate. The team was engaged and the topic for the audit was an important one. We also had a peer review 2007 who pointed out areas of improvement that we have been able to carry out.

Interviewer: Bengt Sundgren, AFROSAI-E performance audit manager

Bengt Sundgren: What was special with the winning report?

Goran: The performance audit report meets the quality criteria’s. The report is easy to read. The motivation for the audit topic makes it easy to understand the importance of the choice. The report deals with the audit objective; it is clearly structured and presented. The report deals with an important topic and points out the importance of giving the auditee the tools to implement its given tasks. The report has the possibility to create change and add value it can lead to a higher degree of transparency in the government.

This review report is focused on the assessment and the qualities of the 2009 winning performance audit report. The comments from the review team on the two other nominated reports are sent separately to each SAI.

The Prize - Introduction

To promote the development of performance audit AFROSAI-E has, in cooperation with the Swedish National Audit Office (SNAO) decided to launch the SNAO Prize for the best performance audit report of the year 2008 and the coming years. The purpose of the prize is to promote sharing of experiences and benchmarking best practice in performance audit but also to highlight the efforts done by performance auditors within the region.

Each SAI within AFROSAI-E has been invited to nominate one performance audit report for assessment.

At the AFROSAI-E Secretariat a formal assessment of the nominated reports has been done making sure they fulfil the requirements made out – such as acceptable production time and publication during 2009. No assessment of the quality is done at the Secretariat.