ITWG Newsletter 2/2021
Message of the Chair
Dear colleagues
I’m glad to introduce our third newsletter and even more glad to state that the initiative to share information between members has proven successful – the number of proposed articles has remained stable, and the quality of input is high. Your contribution is very much appreciated!
For this number, we proposed a feature topic: “Innovative ways to present audits - is interactive audit our future?” The way media is being consumed has changed drastically over last years and this trend also affects supreme audit institutions. We cannot expect important target groups – parliament members, media, citizens – to thoroughly investigate “traditional” massive audit reports. Our stakeholders prefer to see the results and key indicators at a glance. Technological developments that enable us to process massive datasets, provide us with the tools to present the results interactively. In the past we used tens and hundreds of pages to tell our story, but now the appealing story can be told with figures and dashboards – and this might be even more insightful for the consumer, giving information about certain regions, institutions, domains or other clusters.
It’s great to see how many institutions were willing to share their experience in using interactive ways to present audit results. For this purpose, we have extended the number of feature articles. As you can see from the articles, an important trigger for this innovation has been the COVID19 crisis. Likewise, here in Estonia, the first interactive dashboard on our webpage was produced based on an investigation of pandemic support measures – as a pilot project, this has been a way for learning new tools and adapting different methodology for data quality control and presentation. Also, this has led us to think about the ways to save our audit trails and the datasets behind the dashboards.
We are constantly reminded not to judge people and things based on the appearance, but the fact is, the more visually appealing, interactive and individually targeted our products become, the better we are at delivering our message. I hope you are again inspired by the articles from innovative audit institutions!
Feature story from Belgium: COVID-19 Dashboard
Confronted with the unprecedented public spending, in response to the economic backlash of the COVID-19 health crisis, the Belgian Court of Audit launched a performance audit into all socio-economic support measures aimed at relieving the impact of lockdowns and other restricting regulations. The audit proved to be a comprehensive enterprise in federal Belgium, which urged the Court of Audit to innovate its way of working and to publish in a more interactive way.
Read more
Feature story from Hungary: Innovative ways to visualise audits - is interactive audit the future?
Two pages and a Twitter message - that's the innovative way to display the future audit findings of the State Audit Office. Behind the substantive evaluation and the infographics supporting the visualisation are, of course, the digital, methodological and technological developments of recent years and the recent shift in focus of the State Audit Office's advisory as well as audit activities and related audit interactivity. In this article, we explain how we have come so far.
Read moreFeature story from the Netherlands: Interactive audits as future: chances for better products and engaging processes
Interactivity can help audits to improve their impact by making a difference in the lives of citizens ISSAI-12. In this article we will argue how interactivity can add a new dimension to auditing, and why it is necessary to experiment with interactivity to stay relevant in the changing environment. The Design Audit Studio from the Netherlands Court of Audit experiments with interactivity in products and processes. Here, we would like to share our first lessons from our interactivity experiments.
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Feature story from Slovenia: Infographics as a tool to present IT audit findings – a case study
As captivating as IT audit reports are, the uninitiated frequently find them less than exciting. Infographics have proven to be an excellent tool to help readers understand key IT audit findings and promote our work. This article highlights our approach to the graphic presentation of an IT audit and its findings on a case study: "IT support for Centres for Social Work".
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CZECH REPUBLIC: Opportunity for a coordinated audit on the Population and Housing Census 2021
In 2022, the Supreme Audit Office of the Czech Republic is going to conduct an audit on the Population and Housing Census which took place in 2021. The key focus of the audit was presented at the 14th Meeting of the EUROSAI IT Working Group held in Tallinn on 9-10 November 2021. The Czech SAO acknowledges SAI Estonia’s readiness to cooperate on this audit and invites all the other ITWG members to participate as well. For further information, please visit this topic on the BIEP portal here.
CYPRUS: Audit of Tax Management System
According to the 2019 Fiscal Report of the General Accounting Office (GAO), the revenues of the Central Government related to direct taxation amounted to approximately €2.1 billion or 21%. These revenues are managed by the Tax Department (TD) depending mainly on Tax Management System (TMS).
TMS is used for direct taxation in a wide range of functions such as managing taxpayer data, managing tax declarations, calculating and enforcing taxes and managing revenues and tax returns.
GERMANY: Data analysis - challenges, tools and future trends in auditing ERP systems
Analysing data has become more and more important to support audit work. With an increasing number of authorities using IT systems in a wide range of applications, these systems have to be audited.
GERMANY: De-Mail, the scarcely used electronic equivalent to letter post, caused costs of €6.5 million
The Ministry has failed to establish De-Mail, the German e-mail communications service, as electronic equivalent to letter post within the German federal government. Authorities, citizens and companies hardly ever use De-Mail for electronic communication.
MALTA: IT Asset Management Audit
This year the Malta National Audit Office conducted an audit on IT Asset Management across government Ministries and Departments. Essentially the audit assignment sought to analyse the processes and procedures regulating the management of IT assets across the Public Service. The review was carried out across three ministries and two departments, namely the Ministry for Economy and Industry, the Ministry for Health, the Ministry for Justice, Equality and Governance, the Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture, and the Government Printing Press. Feedback was also sought from the Chief Information Officer of the Ministry for Finance and Employment, the Chief Information Officer of the Office of the Prime Minister, the Treasury and MITA[1].
ROMANIA: Digital Transformation of the Romanian Court of Accounts
The Romanian Court of Accounts has laid the foundations and developed a computer application that functions on the SQL Server platform. The developed application aims to be an integrator of the financial data sets reported by all public institutions in Romania to the Ministry of Finance. These data sets, used exclusively in the internal analysis of the Romanian Court of Accounts, aim to show the budget execution regarding the revenues and expenditures made by the public institutions.
SERBIA: Digitalization of the Audit Procedure in the State Audit Institution of the Republic of Serbia early in 2022
In January 2022, the State Audit Institution of the Republic of Serbia (SAI of Serbia) will introduce a system for automated digital implementation and monitoring of the audit procedure, which will improve the quality and speed up the audit procedure.
SLOVENIA: Efficiency of managing cybersecurity risk of the ELES company critical infrastructure, short audit resume
The Court of Audit of the Republic of Slovenia (hereinafter referred to as: Court of Audit) audited the efficiency of ELES, Ltd, Electricity Transmission System Operator (hereinafter referred to as: ELES) in critical infrastructure cybersecurity risk managing. It was the second audit by the Court of Audit reviewing the issue of cybersecurity.
INTOSAI Development Initiative (IDI) – a new initiative is coming!
Picture an ideal state. Efficient functioning of the Supreme Audit Institution (SAI) and processes such as planning, resource management, knowledge management, monitoring, conducting audits and reporting, all strengthened by use of information and communication technology (ICT[1]).
ITWG 14th meeting
The meeting was held 9-10 November in a hybrid format in Tallinn, Estonia. On the 9th of November, over 200 participants from 66 countries were hosted during the seminar “Brace for impact - SAIs pinpointing cyber-risk”. Topics discussed ranged from cybersecurity strategic outlook and cyber critical infrastructure to the management of cyber incidents and the panel discussion “Modern approach to cyber-security auditing” brought out the governments’ and SAIs’ role in protecting the cybersecurity of critical infrastructure.
