QUALITY CONTROL CAIRO 12 – 14 April 2010

One of the key characteristics is the degree of independence under which post- clearance audits are carried out. Therefore, it is necessary for management to ensure that the standards determined for audits are kept and operating consistently throughout the customs administration.

Quality assurance and control  Necessary to ensure that audits are being carried out to certain defined standards  All audit areas (policy area, audit managers and auditors) have strong roles delivering the assurance  Certain procedures are common to all quality control systems. 3

CAIRO 12 – 14 April 2010 It is necessary to ensure that audits are being carried out to certain defined standards All audit areas (policy area, audit managers and auditors) have strong roles delivering the assurance Certain procedures are common to all quality control systems

CAIRO 12 – 14 April 2010 Customs administration and its management has to have responsibility on overall quality assurance of audit activity across the national administration. It would play a key part in ensuring consistency of audit standards, and improvements can be made if practices are not being implemented or standards vary between audit units. Audit managers have the primary role in ensuring that standards of an acceptable quality are being applied to audits. Independent external and internal third parties such as the national audit office or internal audit division can also play an important role in ensuring quality. Among their functions is that they can make objective recommendations for future improvements in the conduct of customs audits. Responsibility for quality assurance

CAIRO 12 – 14 April 2010 Responsibility for quality assurance

CAIRO 12 – 14 April 2010 Customs administration and its manamegement can decide how the assurance programme is carried out. An individual officer can be assigned to this duty or it can be built into the daily work routines of auditors. The ongoing work performance reviews between the audit staff and their managers can be part of the quality assurance programme. An example of a quality assurance programme can be found through a rigorous adherence to the procedures described in the operational guidelines and the various checklists. Responsibility for quality assurance

CAIRO 12 – 14 April 2010 Check lists – diagnostics tool

CAIRO 12 – 14 April 2010 Check lists – examples

CAIRO 12 – 14 April 2010 General check list – example

CAIRO 12 – 14 April 2010 Methods in quality measurement of audit activity folder examinations — an assessment of the quality of the audit by examining the working papers; accompanied visits — it is important to fully assess the professionalism of audit staff; audit managers could accompany their auditors on operational visits to operators as part of the conduct of an audit; coaching — the audit manager can assign an experienced mentor or coach to newly appointed audit staff; the two officers could undertake some visits jointly or the lead officer could utilise the experience of his/her counterpart to enhance his/her own skills/knowledge gaps;

CAIRO 12 – 14 April 2010 Central monitoring — the audit manager should ensure that, when directed by the central national administration, there are spare resources available to conduct periodic checks on quality of operational audit activity; Individual contacts — conversations between managers and their auditors can be carried out regularly in order to renew and, where necessary, revise an auditor’s development plan.

CAIRO 12 – 14 April 2010 QUESTIONS? THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATENTION