TURKEY: TCA’s Data Analysis System and Data Collection

The Big Data era we are in makes computerized audit systems essential due to growing quantities of data.

Data Analysis System – VERA

Turkish Court of Accounts (TCA) use a Data Analysis and Business Intelligence System called VERA which is customized form of Oracle BI specifically for audit. VERA is a web based system and the data is being kept in central database.

The auditors are accessing the data via the system independent of their current location by using VPN (secure internet connection). With VERA, auditors examine big amounts of data thoroughly, identify mistakes or errors in data processing on an earlier step, thus the system enables automation of analysis and continuous monitoring. This system puts no limits to the size or dimension of the data and this brings easiness while collecting, managing or analyzing big data.

Big Data

This Big Data is composed of The Accounting Data of Central Government, Revolving Fund, Municipalities, Special Provincial Administrations, Social Security Institutions, PEE-Company and other public institutions; The Financial Data on payments, collections, receivables, deposits; The Payroll Data on Central Government public officials; The Budget appropriations realizations; The Public Sector Financial Statistics; Other Data such as Data from social security system, Data from banking system, Real Estates data and Demographic data.

Data Collection

The data is collected in a regular basis from Central Government, Revolving Fund, Municipalities, Special Provincial Administrations, Social Security Institutions, PEE-Company and other public institutions.

The data and other information of auditees within the central government are kept electronically by Ministry of Treasury and Finance. After transferring this data to our database by using direct database connection (DB to DB), the data is passed through the ETL process (extract, transform, load - that is data cleaning process) and put into TCA’s data warehouse. (Integrated Public Financial Management System {IPFMS})

Besides that, a form based smart client application system called ‘BVAS’ (United Data Transfer System) was developed by TCA, to gather data that the institutions keep individually such as municipalities. Forms, tables such as journal book, balance sheet, income statements etc. are uploaded to the TCA database via BVAS.

TCA also collects data of Special Provincial Administrations, Social Security Institutions, PEE-Company and other public institutions through a secured connection (web-portal).

Furthermore, The Turkish Statistical Institute, Ministry of Treasury and Finance and the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey publish some data open to the public. TCA collects some of these data for instance demographic data in order to use in analyzing accounting data, financial data, payroll data and other data.  

For more information, please visit: https://sayistay.gov.tr/?lang=en

by Pınar AVUNDUKLUOĞLU, Principal Auditor in Data Analysis Group / SAI Turkey