ALRAQABA . ISSUE 16
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• Possibilities for SAIs to act as models of
transparency and accountability in their own
operations.
Theme 4: The role of SAIs in auditing the
preparedness and commitment of the
government for implementing the SDGs, and
the challenges faced in this context:
What is the mechanism for assessing the
preparedness of the government to implement
goals of the 2030 Agenda?
According to the exposure draft of IDI Guidance
for Auditing Preparedness for Implementation
of Sustainable Development Goals, which was
published by the INTOSAI KSC, the Whole
of Government (WoG) approach is the best
approach to be used by SAIs for assessing the
preparedness of their government.
Whole of Government Approach: Whole of
Government (WoG) is an overarching term for
the government responses to the problem of
increased fragmentation of the public sector
and public services and a wish to increase
integration, coordination and capacity.
Why is Whole of Government (WoG) the best
approach for assessing preparedness?
- WoG approach supports and enables
governments to address complex challenges
in order to ensure more efficient and effective
delivery of services.
- WoG approach strengthens prevention
through tackling issues by a systematic
perspective as they emerge, before they become
embedded.
- WoG approach is of a cross-cutting nature,
which seeks to shift the focus of government
performance towards the results that the
government seeks to achieve rather than
focusing on a single program or ministry.
How to audit preparedness for implementation
of the 2030 Agenda:
a. Planning phase:
It is necessary to have a
competent team with a decent understanding of
SDGs and the Whole of Government approach.
The team should also have good communication
skills to deal with stakeholders in order to
apply performance audit standards. Besides,
SAIs need to have a fairly established audit
methodology.
b. Implementation phase:
This phase involves
collecting and analyzing evidence to support
the audit findings, developing an audit findings
matrix, and finally reporting and communicating
results to civil society organizations, the private
sector, international bodies, and the citizens.
The communication of audit results is deemed
necessary to attain the desired engagement of
stakeholders.
c. Follow-up phase:
This phase involves
demonstrating the impact of reviews and the
interest of both the legislative and executive
authorities in SAB reports, and reports of the
development plan, in particular. It also includes
recording and evaluating the impact of audit
results on making a difference in the lives of
citizens by assessing how far SAB is being
taken as a reliable source in support of structural
changes in the public sector.
