GAO invites to contribute to the revision of the WGITA-IDI Handbook on IT Audit

A WGITA project for evaluating the future direction of the INTOSAI WGITA-IDI Handbook on IT Audit is undergoing, led by U.S. GAO. As the project nears its completion, US GAO would like to connect with EUROSAI ITWG members to get their perspectives on the Handbook at a virtual meeting on Wednesday, November 18 at 14:00 UTC. A link to the meeting will be sent via e-mail to all ITWG contacts.

The objective of the project is to review the existing Handbook and determine the: (1) relevance of the information within the current Handbook; (2) content within the current Handbook that should be revised; and (3) additional references or guidance that should be added.

US GAO has so far analyzed the results of the survey of approximately 30 SAIs on their use of the Handbook, including views on its usefulness, the adequacy of topic coverage, suggested improvements, etc. GAO has also benchmarked the Handbook against other relevant IT and performance audit guidance to evaluate how guidance and informational references are organized, and also to identify the currency of informational references and the level and detail of content provided.

As a result of the review, US GAO plans to provide initial recommendations to WGITA during its November 2020 meeting. Ultimately, some options will be proposed with a recommended course of action to the WGITA on updates to the Handbook. It is aimed to identify opportunities for revising the Handbook to ensure that it is current, better aligned with other guidance, and potentially streamlined and enhanced in terms of content and informational resources.