Maintaining Assurance

What is assurance? Determination if expenditures were for purposes intended Awareness of Internal controls - each partners financial management practices for cash transfers Checking accuracy of partners reporting on the use of funds to ensure expenditure is true and fair

How is assurance maintained? Scheduled audits Reviews of Partners financial records > Spot Checks at Partners offices > Special audits to address specific issues Programmatic assurance > Field monitoring, Annual Reviews

Principles Assurance activities jointly coordinated Assurance activities based on risk & value > Micro-Assessment sets initial risk > Audits only for partners who receive more than US$ 500,000/programme cycle Results feed back and may influence management choice of cash transfer modality Share with partners Reduce burden on governments and UNCT

Who is audited? Partner signing the Annual Work Plan (AWP) = same partner signing the Funding Authorization and Certificate of Expenditures (FACE) Same partner subject to Micro Assessment Could be at national, regional or local level, but must be…consistent approach to risk management

Whats new? Spot Checks UNDP New UNFPA New UNICEF Visits to partners locations more systematized to include review of financial records WFP Some experience

Whats new? Special Audits (optional) UNDP Exist UNFPAExist UNICEFNew WFPNew

Whats new? UNDP Policies ExistPractices are weak UNFPAPolicies ExistPractices are weak UNICEFPolicies ExistPractices are weak WFPPolicies ExistPractices are weak Field Monitoring, Annual Reviews

Whats new? Scheduled audits: UNFPA/UNDP Out: Annual audits of specific projects In: Periodic Audits of Partners controls can be done throughout the year UNICEFNew WFPNew

Whats new? (a summary) Agencies work together Less burden on Governments Less costly for agencies and Government Lessons learned from assurance used to adjust procedures and future assurance, as needed

Who pays? Audit costs charged to programmes/projects Include audit costs in programme budgets

Role of the Governments auditors? Supreme Audit Institution (SAI) – use if… – Macro assessment = low risk Where reliance placed on SAI, the cost is part of the SAIs budget and is not recharged to programmes

Implications? Involving Government audit services Working with audit firms > Identification and contracting > Quality assurance of completed audits Strengthening other assurance activities > Programmatic assurance