Building capacity of auditors on public procurement

Review meeting participants. (Contributed Photo)

The controller and auditor-general of Samoa Fuimaono Camillo Afele is hosting the Pacific regional program on compliance audit of public procurement which is part of an international capacity building program developed and delivered jointly by the INTOSAI Development Initiative and the Pacific Association of Supreme Audit Institutions.

Twenty-two auditors from Cook Islands, Fiji, Federated States of Micronesia, Pohnpei FSM, Papua New Guinea, Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, and Tuvalu are participating in this weeklong review meeting, which commenced on Dec. 15 and ended on Dec. 20, 2016.

The keynote speaker, Salā Fata Pinati, the minister for Audit Office, formally opened this regional meeting by highlighting the important role that supreme audit institutions play in ensuring accountable and transparent government procurement practices.

“This regional program is the first being delivered in the global INTOSAI region and I am pleased to host it, because the subject matter of public procurement is a significant matter which affects all areas of public service delivery which my office is mandated to do,” said Afele.

The program follows the cooperative audit approach with the main objective to support SAIs in moving toward international standards of supreme audit institutions compliance in the conduct of compliance audits. At this review meeting the participating teams obtained feedback from the facilitators/resource persons in relation to their draft audit reports and throughout the week teams were given the opportunity to enhance and improve their draft reports.

The facilitators and resource persons for this review meeting were Md Shofiqul Islam, IDI program manager for PASAI; Ingvild Gulbrandsen, SAI Norway; Ibrahim Aiman, SAI Maldives; Violet Roebeck-Fasavalu, SAI Samoa; and A’eau Agnes Tuiai-Aruwafu, PASAI director Technical Support.

The program, which is part of the global ISSAI implementation initiative or 3i program, spans a period of two years and provides blended support solutions by supporting participants in sustainably enhancing their professional and organizational capacity to audit more effectively public procurement.

PASAI is the overarching regional working group of supreme audit institutions in the Pacific region. It has 28 members that promote transparent and efficient use of public sector resources with the aim to make a difference to the lives of citizens. The IDI acts as the capacity development secretariat of the INTOSAI (International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions), which comprises 192 SAIs. PASAI is a regional organization of INTOSAI, which operates as an umbrella organization for the external government audit community and has a worldwide global affiliation with SAIs around the world.

PASAI acknowledged the financial support and collaborative ongoing joint partnership with IDI and the financial support of the Australian government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, including the Samoa Audit Office. (PR)