EUROSAI. Magazine N21 - 2015

EUROPEAN ORGANISATION OF SUPREME AUDIT INSTITUTIONS REPORTS AND STUDIES 111 www.eurosai.org · N.º 21 - 2015 Based on the auditing experiences, the common issues found in the audit of financial management are pertaining to inadequate documentation or records, non-compliance to regulations and standards, core processes, policies and procedures are not properly defined, lack of control with authorization of transactions, no oversight or review, ineffective information system, lack of physical and logical security, no formal ethical policies and procedures, job roles and responsibilities not clearly defined, absent or inadequate separation of duties, inadequate disaster recovery and backups, inadequate control consciousness within the organisation, management override of controls. These internal control weaknesses depending on severity could cause significant losses of resources and revenue to the government. The management should know whether these weaknesses are due to proven incompetence of people down the line or their lack of diligence because of poor supervision. As the ultimate responsibility rests with the controlling officers, they must be committed to act, to make sure their personnel improve their competency through effective training programmes and they must not hesitate to take appropriate disciplinary action against those who are blatantly negligent in their works. In the sphere of government projects, programmes and activities, audit reports normally reveal many cases of poor planning, implementation and monitoring arising not only from incompetence or lack of diligence involved, but also problems or inter- and-intra agency coordination and communications as well as poor supervision by project or programme managers. Resulting from these problems, several government projects and programmes show unfavourable outcomes such as unjustified delays, severe cost overruns, poor quality buildings, underutilised facilities and equipment. Such outcomes contribute not only to a poor image of the public delivery system but also raise the questions about those people responsible in choosing the contractors, consultants or vendors to do the works as well as those supervising the work of these people. Ways of Strengthening Accountability and Integrity It is not an easy task to inculcate values of accountability and integrity among the public servants with their own spheres of functions and responsibilities whether they are heads, managers or workers. It needs a high commitment and discipline as well as good communication and coordination among them. Public servants can show more commitment to improving the way they do their work to correcting their weaknesses, ensuring good discipline as well as equipping themselves with relevant knowledge and expertise. For the heads and managers, practicing leadership by good example is imperative. The heads in the public sector must walk the talk by showing that they are really committed to the cause of developing excellent work culture within their organisation through effective monitoring their managers’ and subordinates’ performance indicators relating to actual output, outstanding applications and complaints from the public as well as conducting regular spot checks. Realistic deadlines must be imposed to resolve problems and clearly indicate who will be made responsible for improvements to happen. The heads must be morally strong and willing to take firm actions to ensure the subordinates are always clean, efficient and trustworthy by becoming role models and ensuring the existing controls and mechanisms are effectively functioning. Role of SAI and Regional Groups The governance landscape in the last decade has changed tremendously with the convergence of public and private sectors, new levels of complexity and risks of public sector agencies, increasing expectations of For the heads and managers, practicing leadership by good example is imperative