Interview with Goran Hyltander, chairman of the Reviewing team

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.

Bengt: Did you find any general strengths and weaknesses?

Goran: The reports have all focused on important problems in the public service that are of vital interest for the general public, parliamentarians and decision makers it their respective country. Generally the conclusions that are drawn could maybe have gone even further to comment on the possibilities for the auditee to implement the political decisions that govern their mission.

Bengt: Was it difficult to select the winner?

Goran: No, not really. Aldo all the reports has their advantage the review team was unanimous in its decision. The wining report had a good design, was easy to read and understand. 

Bengt: How did the review team work to select a winner?

Goran: The quality of the audit reports has been assessed by a review team consisting of members from the SAIs of Sweden, Norway, Netherlands and the UK. The review team brings together a wealth of knowledge and experience in performance auditing. We used the quality criteria. All four reviewers separately ranked the fulfilment of each criterion for the nominated reports. All reviewers also made an individual summary of the impression of each report. After the individual ranking was done we come up with a common ranking and motivation for our decision.

Bengt: You have been working yourself in different country in Africa. Do you see any particular topics or issues for performance audit that you think would be important to focus on for the SAIs who is members of AFROSAI-E?

Goran: It is a hard question to answer. But inspired by the reports it can be good to focus on transparency issues so that the general public and the parliament becomes aware of the auditees possibilities to implement the decisions that have been taken.

Bengt: Is there anything you want to add?

Goran: It was an interesting and fun task to perform. I believe the other members of the review team have the same opinion.