Feature story from ARABOSAI region - Egypt: Launching of a New Auditing Era through Modern Digital Systems in order to Preserve Public Funds
In light of the Modern Digital Egypt Initiative for preserving public funds, the Egyptian government adopted the Implementation of numerous digital transformation projects to develop the State’s public financial management. Among the most important of these projects are the following.
1. Automating the development and implementation of the State's general budget, final accounts, moving from traditional to electronic payment and collection in a way that contributes to enhancing discipline and financial inclusion, proper planning of government cash flows and creating a robust public financial management system.
2. Modernizing and digitalizing both of the tax and customs administration systems leading to establishing the foundations of tax and customs justice, reducing tax and customs evasion, collecting State public treasury dues and shifting towards a digital economy.
In order to keep pace with modern technology, the Accountability State Authority was keen to provide the basic potentials for launching a new era of conducting financial auditing through modern digital systems as well as achieving a qualitative shift in performing audits, taking into account that the journey was not easy in all phases. For it is inconceivable to execute an immediate and radical transition from the traditional environment of financial control - which is based mainly on paper documents and manual accounting entries - to a new work environment for control based on digital applications through which the activity is being tracked and its financial data is being examined.
Hence, the ASA sought during the past years to implement a digital transformation project that included a wide range of initiatives some of which are as follows.
- Enhancing the ASA infrastructure by concluding protocols with both, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and the Ministry of Finance in order to establish a data center as well as develop an internal network( intranet).
- Linking all departments and divisions inside and outside the ASA's headquarters with data centre along with applying the highest standards of information security.
- Developing the general applications serving the ASA's administrative work.
- Enhancing the ASA members' professional capabilities in order to befit the digital work environment through implementing a training strategy divided into annual periods.
- Seeking to operationalize audit applications that would assist the ASA's technical personnel in performing their audit tasks.
This is undertaken in order to achieve the following main objectives.
- Streamlining procedures and promoting the services' quality.
- Leveraging modern techniques.
- Reducing the human effort and reinforcing expenditures efficiency.
- Flexible and strict planning as well as speedy decision making.
- Limiting paper transactions.
- Facilitating the scheduling process of the audited entities' field
- The governance of following up control and commitment
- The easy tracking of audit requirements.
As for the gained benefits (result and impact), they could be listed in the following points.
- Building a secure and reliable shared database.
- Creating a sustainable digital system.
- An easy process of studying and analyzing data.
- Providing accurate information, statistics and indicators.
- Improving the quality of exchanged data and raising the level of planning and decision making.
- Enhancing digital connectivity and transforming data in a fast and reliable manner.
- A speedy reports' issuance.
The most important challenges that the ASA faced during its digitalization journey were following.
- Cyber security and data protection concerns.
- The cost of digital transformation, investment in technological infrastructure and budget constraints.
- Cultural transformation and adaptation to modern techniques.
- Legal and regulatory compliance.
- Change resistance and capacity building.
Here, comes the question, how did the ASA face the implementation challenges?
The answer to this question comes in the next few lines ,as methods have been developed including a combination between strategic planning and stakeholder engagement in order to target a sustainable digital transformation. The most important of these methods are:
- Information Security
Adopting strong security procedures in order to protect information and ensure data confidentiality and soundness.
- Strategic Partnerships and Cooperation Protocols
Establishing strategic partnerships with the concerned State institutions concerned in order to integrate with the latest electronic financial systems and applications implemented in governmental entities.
- Digital Transformation Strategy
Developing an inclusive transformation strategy that includes technology and training to provide the ASA members with digital skills as well as change the culture and stimulate human resources.
- Integration of Techniques
Integrating modern digital techniques with current applied systems in order to achieve an effective integration.
- Culture change
Managing change effectively to reduce resistance and enhance engagement with technology.
- Proactive Vision
Setting a proactive vision for utilizing technology in order to enhance and develop audit practices.
- Experiences sharing
The ASA is always keen to share experiences with international professional organizations as well as peer institutions through live and virtual meetings with these countries and organizations.
- Periodic Evaluation
By conducting a periodic evaluation to ensure the continuity of achieving the digital transformation goals and effective integration.
We could state that the Accountability State Authority has achieved a remarkable success in the field of digitalization, and it sustains as a source of inspiration for other institutions towards improving their practices and developing their services thanks to innovation and sustainability, which ensuingly had a significant impact on:
- Consolidating integration between the Ministry of Finance (pre-disbursement control) and the Accountability State Authority (post-disbursement auditing), which helped in enhancing the governance of the State’s financial system and further preserving public funds.
- Deepening transparency through granting the ASA members direct accessibility to the electronic financial systems implemented by government entities in order to access data and reports.
- Achieving a qualitative transformation in performing audits and ensuring a fully-fledged auditing practice aiming to preserve public funds as well as fostering the State's economic and developmental potentials in order to keep pace with rapid and successive technological developments.
This unique experience materialized the ASA's proactive vision and strong determination to successfully overcome the challenges of implementing digital transformation, improving audit practices, leveraging technology and adopting data analysis practices.
In conclusion, the Accountability State Authority remains an exemplary institution as it not only adapted to digital transformation, but also optimally utilized it to build a future characterized by innovation and competency.
It is a success story that inspires us to challenge obstacles and move towards a promising digital future.
