1. The role of Supreme Audit Institutions in fragile situations: initial findings
Research by David Goldsworthy and Silvia Stefanoni of Development Action for the INTOSAI Capacity Building Committee
Synergy Meeting: SAIs in fragile situations
Washington, 20 September

2. Key challenges for SAIs in fragile situations
Political
no control on appointments
distrust of SAI
Economic
insufficient resources
poor infrastructure
Societal
citizens engagement compromised
Environmental
disasters
power supply
Security
no go areas
threats to staff
Key challenges for SAIs in fragile situations

3. Major focus on building own capacity to deliver good enough audits
Compliance/judicial audit more than financial audit
Building relations of trust with government and citizens
Working with public service commission to gain more control over recruitment
Improving governance – integrity to combat corruption risk
SAI responses

4. State building opportunities for SAIs operating in fragile situations
Strengthening financial capacity of auditees and parliament
Helping governments identify and manage risks in key areas of fragility
Promoting a culture of inclusiveness
Building citizens’ confidence in the responsiveness of the state
Providing independent information

5. What do SAIs in fragile situations want from development partners
Satisfied at level of consultation – development partners listen but
Need politically astute advocates – able to support SAI independence
Want aid to be contingent on improved transparency and accountability
Need longer more predictable and flexible funding - limited absorption capacity
Need support for SAI leadership, alliance building, out reach and follow up of audits
Need help acquiring capital funds
What do SAIs in fragile situations want from development partners

6. What do SAIs in fragile situations want from INTOSAI
A forum for SAIs in fragile situations to share lessons and strategies
Advocacy in major international and regional fora – Timor Este group, Ministries of Finance, Parliaments, Public Service Commissions
Guidance on implementing ISSAIs in low capacity situations
Training for peer-SAIs on how to develop effective partnerships
Support for Franco-phone network of SAIs
What do SAIs in fragile situations want from INTOSAI

7. Thank you .

8. Ineffective parliaments
Political Fragility
Actions taken by SAIs
Challenges
Focus on organisational integrity - lead by example
Concerted effort to build alliances with reformers
Produce balanced audit reports and build relations with government
Public Education campaigns
Lobbying to bring legislation in line with international standards
Negotiating greater control over recruitment and wages
Pervasive corruption
Lack of independence
Weak rule of law
SAI seen as a threat
Ineffective parliaments
Over the next five slides, I am going to use the five dimensions of fragility used by the OECD to explore the challenges facing SAIs and provide some example of ways SAIs are responding to these challenges.
Presenter to run through the major challenges and key actions as per slide text and use the following examples to illustrate specific actions taken
A key aspect of independence is the ability to recruit the staff you need - SAI Sudan have been fighting a largely successful battle to gain this right – using international comparison and persistence they are gradually gaining the control they need - helping SAIs
Building trust - SAI Palestine and SAI Somalia have produced simplified guides to their work so that citizens can better understand the role and support the activities of the SAI
Tackling risk of corruption in SAIs - SAI Iraq has teams based in the ministries however, whenever there are hints of corruption, the teams are immediately replaced with new teams unknown to the auditees
Appointments
politicized

9. Economic Fragility Challenges Actions taken by SAIs
Poor infrastructure
Start with compliance and/or judicial audit
Develop capacity in key economic areas
Recruit from the private sector and diaspora
Major investment in strengthening human resources
Produce evidence based budget submission
Develop longer term partnership with donors including support for infrastructure
Highly bureaucratic environment and large public sector
Insufficient and unpredictable budgets - donor dependency
Weak public financial management
Presenter to run through the major challenges and key actions as per slide text and use the following examples to illustrate specific actions taken
Finding creative ways of recruiting staff from the private sector -SAI Liberia faced with limited pool of qualified auditors in the public sectors recruited some key staff from the private sector by using the allocated budget for salaries flexibly
Being clear about what can be delivered when budgets are insufficient - SAI Mali faced with decreasing resources was able to select a smaller number of audits and limit their scope – focusing on areas of greatest population density.
Weak human resource capacity

10. Societal Fragility Challenges Actions taken by SAIs
Exclusion and/or under-representation of some groups e.g. women
Establish new communication unit with donor support to engage with citizens and communicate the results of audits reports
Lack of democratic spaces for, and dialogue with, civil society
High level of citizens’ distrust of the government
Presenter to run through the major challenges and key actions as per slide text and use the following examples to illustrate specific actions taken
The ties which bind citizens to governments and state are in many fragile situations very weak – whole groups in the community can feel marginalized on ethnic, religious and gender grounds. Many SAIs are seeking to strengthen their communication units and put in place public education programmes to promote and facilitate greater engagement with citizens.
However, for some, this could undermine the trust they are training to build with government and thus needs to be approached with care.
From the interviews conducted to date it would appear that SAIs are not developing strategies for recruiting a diverse work force

11. Environmental Fragility
Challenges
Actions taken by SAIs
Unreliable energy supply
Disasters
Building capacity on key environmental audit areas
Presenter to run through the major challenges and key actions as per slide text
SAI Sierra Leone conducted an audit of the Ebola response which had significant impact and lessons for planning future responses to epidemics
There would appear to be scope for SAIs in fragile contexts to look at the Guide to Business Continuity Planning – developed by CAROSAI and PASAI for CBC.
Pandemics

12. Security Fragility Challenges Actions taken by SAIs
Build alliances with local leaders and strengthen engagement with community
Provide security to staff working in dangerous areas
Rotate staff regularly and provide psychological support to staff
Destruction of financial records
Staff receiving threats
Presenter to run through the major challenges and key actions as per slide text and use the following examples to illustrate specific actions taken
SAI Afghanistan is fostering relationship with local community leaders in order to gain safe access to areas of the country which are still challenging from a security perspective
Not able to operate in parts of the country because of violence

13. State building opportunities for SAIs operating in fragile situations
SAIs can build financial capacity of auditees and parliament by
training and supporting parliamentarians and staff
issuing audit reports with clear implementable recommendations
targeting performance audit on efficiency issues
Presenter to run through the major points as per text and use the following examples to illustrate specific actions taken
SAI Afghanistan and Iraq are examples of SAIs working with MOFs to improve financial skills across government
SAI Liberia has made significant effort in improving the accessibility of its reports

14. State building opportunities for SAIs operating in fragile situations
SAIs can support governments in managing risks in areas of fragility by
identifying and targeting audits in priorities areas such as: management of natural resources, taxation, debt management, budget setting, mapping of government revenues including donors’ contributions, police and military services, judiciary
Presenter to run through the major points as per text and use the following examples to illustrate specific actions taken
SAI Sudan for example identified the banking sector has a key area of risks and focused substantial effort in this sector

15. State building opportunities for SAIs operating in fragile situations
SAIs can lead by example in promoting a culture of inclusiveness by
implementing inclusive human resources policies and practices
Presenter to run through the slide as per slide text
Although this an important area it seems to remain low priority for SAIs in fragiles contexts

16. State building opportunities for SAIs operating in fragile situations
SAIs can build citizens’ confidence in the responsiveness of the government by
promoting transparency and accountability to citizens of government services and actions
engaging with citizens’ groups to respond to public concerns and conduct performance audits in areas of high public interest
communicating the roles and benefits of SAIs to citizens and other key stakeholders
Presenter to run through the major points as per text and use the following examples to illustrate specific actions taken
SAI Sierra Leone is undertaking performance audits of the availability of medicines in pharmacies in response to concerns raised by citizens about corruption

17. State building opportunities for SAIs operating in fragile situations
SAIs can provide independent information by
Strengthening their capacity to produce high quality audits
Providing relevant accessible information on key areas of risk/fragility
Presenter to run through the major points as per text and use the following examples to illustrate specific actions taken
All SAIs interviewed see this area as one of their core contributions to reducing fragility. In some cases, where a SAI is not able to conduct a full audit, merely putting accurate information in the public domain makes a contribution. The work SAI South Sudan did, for example, in gathering and publishing core information on who owned what oil drilling rights proved of considerable value to citizens and other stakeholders.