Audit Office aiming for ‘paperless’ operations

Oct 06, 2015 News

The Audit Office of Guyana is continuing its mandate to deliver improved public accountability. It will soon be moving its operations to a paperless environment.

Auditor General, Deodat Sharma

The revelation was made by Auditor General (AG) Deodat Sharma, who last week presented the 2014 AG Report to Speaker of the National Assembly, Dr. Barton Scotland.
According to Sharma, the mission of the Audit Office is to promote “good governance, transparency and improved public accountability”.
In this regard, he said, significant progress has been made to modernise and strengthen the Audit Office. He said that with this goal in mind, the Audit Office received considerable support from Government and donor agencies, especially the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
The Guyana Government and IDB recently signed a technical corporation agreement in the sum of US$488,073 to continue the modernisation and strengthening of the Audit Office.
“Dating back to 2004, this grant represents the fourth consecutive agreement via which the audit has benefited,” Sharma said. He added that this latest agreement is currently on-going. One of its main objectives is to improve the Audit Office’s operational effectiveness and efficiency.
This improvement will be done through the use of applied Information Technology for audit business, with special emphasis on reducing the document retrieval time. Further, it will aim to condense the amount of paper stored, Sharma said.
“That is, we are moving to a paperless environment,” he added.
To achieve this objective, the Audit Office will implement integrated audit management software known as TeamMate. This software covers the entire audit process and is already being used in other countries such as Jamaica and Canada. Sharma further said that funding from the agreement will also see the strengthening of technical capacities in areas such as Information Technology, Performance Auditing, and Procurement Auditing. The areas of Forensic Accounting and Fraud Investigation will also be strengthened.
Sharma stressed that with the evolution of Information Technology, not only will a paperless environment be easier to implement, but the Audit Office’s system will see improved efficiency and productivity.
“We will also seek to continue our capacity building initiatives, particularly in the area of performance Information Technology, Procurement Auditing, and Forensic Auditing.”

Training
Meanwhile, Sharma said that the officers of the Audit Office have been able to benefit tremendously from training. Many of these training efforts have been funded by donor agencies.
“It should be noted that in 2008 the Audit Office established a Forensic Audit Unit in keeping with the regulation of the Audit Act. The staff of this unit has benefited from continual professional development and over the years have issued several reports,” Sharma said.
Sharma indicated that the Audit Office has commenced control based audits in an attempt to execute high quality audits and timely reporting to the legislature. In this regard, he said, 28 audit officers were trained in the conduct of such audits.
He emphasised that the last five Auditor General Reports have each year met the statutory deadline of September 30.
Additionally, Sharma indicated that assistance was received from the Canadian Executive Service Organisation (CESO). A total of 16 officers were trained in the conduct of Information Technology audits. The Audit Office also signed a 2015 agreement with CESO for the provision of technical assistance.
In further outlining the training undergone by officers of the audit office, Sharma shared that five officers were trained in various areas of auditing under the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) programme.
He continued, “The Office continues to assist in the professional development of the staff by providing training materials, including textbooks and examination kits. These training materials have enabled a number of audit officers to pursue professional certification in accounting field.”
In fact, he said, eight audit officers are in the final stage in gaining Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) certification.
Meanwhile, Sharma indicated that funding was also provided to raise awareness on the Audit Office’s role and functions among stakeholders, to facilitate cooperation with the work performed by the Audit Office.
“Emphasis will also be placed on promoting proper understanding among stakeholders about the value of audit work such as better use of public resources,” Sharma added.
Additionally, he said, as part of its mandate the Audit Office is also continuing in doing Performance Audits and plans to do an audit on the acquisition and distribution of textbooks for the years 2013 and 2014.
The office has just concluded the follow-up audit on an assessment of the living condition of the residents of the Palms Geriatric Institution.