EUROSAI. Magazine N21 - 2015

EUROPEAN ORGANISATION OF SUPREME AUDIT INSTITUTIONS REPORTS AND STUDIES 78 www.eurosai.org · N.º 21 - 2015 Equally important is having the organisational agility to take adequate steps, pro-actively as well as reactively, in response to these changes. Anticipation thus combines ‘knowing’ and ‘acting’. Our role may change: We need to think about our role as a SAI in developing foresight. We are convinced government should focus on acquiring foresight. So, how do we help with this? Do we develop scenarios ourselves to inspire others? Or audit scenarios developed by government? And, of course, the big question is: how do you develop scenarios? Do you direct attention in the scenarios to the holes or blind spots in the overall picture? Or focus on the factors that determine the greatest risks and divide these into stress tests of sorts? These are difficult questions, which cannot be answered immediately. Nevertheless, these are the issues we need to tackle together if we are to be ready for the changes of the 21 st century. There is no time to waste. It is my strong belief that we are currently on a fault line between two eras. We are moving from the technical and digital age of the 20 th century to the open information age of the 21 st century. This means that we need to adapt our 20 th -century thinking, in our 19 th -century institutions, to meet 21 st -century challenges. We owe that to our citizens, we owe that to ourselves and we owe that to our predecessors. They did not develop our work only to perish under an avalanche of information. We have a value for citizens and society and we need to show that with our work! Anticipation thus combines ‘knowing’and ‘acting’. Our rolemay change:We need to think about our role as a SAI in developing foresight.We are convinced government should focus on acquiring foresight