Pacific Regional Audit Initiative (PRAI)

Submitted by katharina on 28 October 2011 - 12:06pm

PRAI’s overarching objective is to raise Pacific public auditing to uniformly-high standards, which in turn is expected to improve transparency and accountability in managing and using public resources.

Regional cooperation and coordination - activities include the establishment of a regional secretariat for the Pacific Association of Supreme Audit Institutions (PASAI); the creation of a Charter and a governing board; the coordination of the PASAI annual congresses; and governing board meetings.

Capacity Building - activities include the development of 5 audit manuals and guidelines, and training as well as training materials for 4 major courses.

Cooperative audits – activities included the conduct of cooperative performance and financial audits, and assisting in the conduct of financial audits in Kiribati, Nauru and Tuvalu.

Communication and Advocate Transparency and Accountability – activities include educating stakeholders on the value of public auditing; advocating transparency and accountability; and providing editorial and communication advice.

Key Information
28 October 2011
Timeframe: 
2008-2012
Case Study
Background: 

Cooperative performance audit on management of solid waste
• PASAI conducted its first cooperative performance audit on management of solid waste between October 2009 and April 2010. The audit was funded jointly by the INTOSAI Development Initiative (IDI) and the Asian Development Bank. Ten Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) from the Pacific region participated of which 5 had not previously conducted performance audit.

Results Achieved: 

• Then audit reports have been produced and to date 2 have been made public and attracted wide media coverage. Other audit reports are awaiting clearance by the respective legislatures (which require the reports to be tabled in Parliaments/Congresses) before they can be made public.
• In addition, a draft regional audit report has been produced and will be made public once all 10 SAIs reports have been tabled in their legislatures and made public.

Main Activities: 

• A planning meeting for the audit was held in Nadi Fiji in October 2009 to develop plans for the audits.
• Participants returned to their SAIs and conducted field audit work on the management of solid waste in their countries. A consultant supervised the audits by visiting the 10 countries and provided necessary guidance to the participants.
• A reporting meeting was convened in April 2010 to work on the draft audit reports that had been submitted by the 10 SAIs.
• Participants were allocated time to discuss the reports with auditees and stakeholders before the reports were signed off by the heads of SAIs (or Auditors General) and presented to the legislatures.

Future Replicability
Lessons Learned: 

• Cooperative performance audit is cost effective and could achieve amazing results for participants and their jurisdictions, especially for small island nations in the Pacific. Participants were not only trained on-the-job but peer-reviewed others in the planning and the reporting sessions of the audits.
• The participants observed the set timelines strictly for the completion of the audits as there was specific attention by the regional secretariat and the governing body.

Key to Success for Future Replicability: 

• Perhaps the key to success of the program is working cooperatively and collaboratively on the audits.
• Peer review is an important part of the program because it enables support to participants who may lack the expertise and skills to complete the work effectively.

Recommended Follow-Up:
The PASAI secretariat will keep track of the outstanding reports to be tabled in the legislatures, as well as the tabling of the regional report.

Contacts: 

Focal point(s) in lead country/organization
PASAI Secretariat, 1st Floor, 46 Parnell Road, Auckland 1052
Tel +64 9 304 1275, Fax +64 9 307 9324