The working environment in which EUROSAI members operate is constantly changing. To keep the audit work and its results relevant to the needs and expectations of their stakeholders, SAIs constantly improve and develop its working methods, including audit methodology.

The Supreme Audit Office of Poland (NIK), organised EUROSAI Audit Methodology Meeting that was held in October 2018 in Warsaw. The meeting comprised of three workshops: on quality assurance, on communication with stakeholders and on audit planning - strategic and operational level. Almost 60 experts in audit methodology and communication from nearly 30 EUROSAI member SAIs participated in the meeting. The initiative of organising discussion forum for experts in methodology and SAIs’ strategy continue and the next meeting is planned.

Contact point: Supreme Audit Office of Poland, wsm@nik.gov.pl

Throughout the INTOSAI community there is a need for strengthening the capacity of SAIs. An effective way of doing this is in the format of long term peer-to-peer support. Since several EUROSAI members are engaged in long term peer-to-peer support, the intention with the project was to arrange a workshop aimed at exchange knowledge about how to conduct peer-to-peer.

The Netherlands Court of Audit together with the Swedish National Audit office and INTOSAI Capacity Building Committee hosted a workshop on long-term peer-to-peer capacity building that took place in February 2019 in the Hague. More than 20 persons from 8 EUROSAI member SAIs and the IDI met to share methods and experiences in peer-to-peer support. The project explored how to improve the quality and to increase the quantity of long-term peer-to-peer cooperation on capacity building. The workshop also explored possible ways forward to continue to share information and experiences on the issue at hand. Minutes from the workshop are available at the EUROSAI website for the operational plan (http://eurosaiop.org). The minutes are also available on the website for INTOSAI Capacity Building Committee (CBC) in the framework of the workstream on peer-to-peer cooperation (https://www.intosaicbc.org/peer-to-peer-cooperation/).

Contact person: Peter Danielsson, Swedish National Audit Office, peter.danielsson@riksrevisionen.se, and Hayo van der Wal, Netherlands Court of Audit H.vanderwal@rekenkamer.nl

The European Court of Auditors has kindly made its course in performance audit available to the EUROSAI members. The aim was to enhance the capability to perform performance audits by applying the standards and best practises. The first (pilot) e-course was successfully launched in April 2019 thanks to the collaboration via in-kind contributions among EUROSAI, ECA and IDI. More than 100 participants from 22 different EUROSAI member SAIs applied to register for the course, which was carried out between in May and June 2019. Following this session, EUROSAI will organise other editions of the course so that more participants from the EUROSAI community have the opportunity to attend it.

Contact point: EUROSAI Secretariat, eurosai@tcu.es

Integrated Reporting is an evolution of corporate reporting, with a focus on conciseness, strategic relevance and future orientation. It can lead to behavioural changes and improvement in performance throughout an organisation. The joint project of EUROSAI and European Confederation of Institutes of Internal Auditing (ECIIA) was approved in February 2019 with the aim to enhance knowledge on Integrated Reporting and its potential benefits to EUROSAI and ECIIA members.

The project will kick-off with a baseline survey to EUROSAI and ECIIA members on integrated reporting. Information, i.a. based on findings in the survey, will be disseminated among the members. The intention is to report on the project at the EUROSAI Congress in 2020.

Contact point: Hayo van der Wal, Netherlands Court of Audit (NCA), H.Vanderwal@rekenkamer.nl and Soledad Llamas, ECIIA, sltutor@canaldeisabelsegunda.es

The quality of how SAIs fulfil their mandate largely depends on the knowledge and skills of their staff. That is why the professional development remains a priority in EUROSAI’s activity. One of the already identified effective tools for transfer knowledge and experience between public auditors of various European SAIs is a EUROSAI staff secondment programme.

The programme was approved for its implementation in June 2019. It is based on the selection procedure of applications gathered within a competition. The first competition will be launched in autumn 2019. The programme aims to co-finance at least four secondments annually.

Contact point: Supreme Audit Office of Poland, agnieszka.morawska@nik.gov.pl

This project aims to provide EUROSAI members with information about INTOSAI’s standard setting work. The project focuses on providing communications to all members about news concerning the migration from the ISSAI framework to the new INTOSAI Framework for Professional Standards (IFPP) as well as giving other information about what is currently going on in INTOSAIs standard setting work. The project is led by the SAI of Sweden in its capacity of EUROSAI representative in INTOSAI Professional Standards Committee (PSC).

Contact person: Peter Danielsson, Swedish National Audit Office peter.danielsson@riksrevisionen.se;

This project, initiated by the State Audit Office of Hungary, aimed at mapping the ways and possibilities to improve the use of public sector audits. The project group attempted to identify how and by what means the social utilisation of public sector auditing may be monitored at various levels (main stakeholders of the SAI as audited entities, citizens, legislature and the media). Another objective of the project group was to measure the impact of the SAIs’ communication activities on the social perception of SAIs.

The project activities included data collections through questionnaires, gathering information on good practices and national case studies. The results of these activities were included in the Guideline on the social utilisation and transparency of public sector audits. Later on, a workshop was organised to finalise the Guideline and now it is being disseminated among EUROSAI members.

Contact point: State Audit Office of Hungary, international@asz.hu

SAIs need to review their own capabilities and ensure both their operational agility to respond to current pressures and challenges, as well as their strategic foresight to recognize and embrace upcoming risks and trends from their environment. By providing a strong evidence base for a SAI’s current performance, and signaling the areas for improvement, the SAI Performance Measurement Framework (SAI PMF) can make an invaluable contribution to those objectives.

At the INTOSAI congress in December 2016, a SAI PMF Implementation Strategy 2017-2019 was approved jointly with the Endorsement Version of the SAI PMF. A key element in this Strategy is the development of SAI PMF regional implementation plans.

Throughout EUROSAI SAI PMF implementation plan, EUROSAI members will be encouraged to use this tool as well as a required support will be provided.

The EUROSAI SAI PMF implementation plan will be developed in co-operation with IDI.

Contact point: wsm@nik.gov.pl

The INTOSAI’s priority to contribute to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is reflected is EUROSAI actions. However, the number of EUROSAI member SAIs which carried out an audit on SDGs is still not satisfactory.

• SAIs from EUROSAI which participated in the IDI-KSC programme.
• SAIs which in INTOSAI survey on SDGs declared to have been/are carrying out audits on preparedness to SDGs implementation.
• SAIs which in INTOSAI survey on SDGs declared to have carried out audits relating to specific goals.

To promote audit on SDGs a number of articles and relevant information are shared within the EUROSAI community so as EUROSAI members could contribute to the follow-up and review of the SDGs within the context of each nation’s specific sustainable development efforts and SAIs’ individual mandates. Additionally, SAI Poland plans to initiate an EUROSAI co-operative audit on SDGs.

Contact point: Supreme Audit Office of Poland,  wsm@nik.gov.pl

The aim of the one-year project was to establish bilateral or multilateral cooperation among participating SAIs in order to learn more about integrity solutions and integrity related materials of others. The results of the international working group and all practices were collected on an online platform and were presented on the closing workshop. Integrity related materials, over 70 shared documents, are still available for the project members.

Contact point: State Audit Office of Hungary, international@asz.hu

The Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation has been kind enough to translate the ISSAIs into Russian. These translations are available on the EUROSAI website.