The conference was an element of NIK implementing - in cooperation with the SAI of Sweden - the 2nd Strategic Goal of EUROSAI, i.e. the Institutional Capacity Development.
This year’s meeting dealt with the audit methodology at three key audit stages: audit selection, audit conduct and communication of audit results. The conference participants tried to answer the following questions:
- Where do ideas for audit topics come from? How do we select them?
- How to make sure the audit is of high quality?
- How to reach recipients of our audits’ results?
First, the audit methodologists gave presentations on individual topics. They wondered if it is possible to choose a perfect audit topic and how to properly identify audit areas. Talking about the audit quality the experts analysed the public audit process and looked into the ISSAI 140 which deals with audit quality control. Finally, they discussed issues related to the impact of audit reports, reaching stakeholders and delivering the message to them. The meeting participants shared their experience and ideas on potential development paths for those issues but also limitations they come across in their everyday work. At the end of the meeting, after the experience exchange and often stormy subgroup discussions, the experts presented their conclusions.
The meeting deliverables will be the basis for developing future activities and long-term undertakings by the SAIs of Poland and Sweden. The objective is to provide European SAIs with the tools to develop their capacities in the directions they need most.
The audit experts admitted that was with great satisfaction that they took part in the two-day conference. They said that the exchange of views, the discussion about SAIs’ development needs and the confrontation with other countries’ experience were of huge cognitive value for them. The 1st edition of the meeting of audit methodologists took place in 2018, also at NIK headquarters. This is the largest forum in Europe where practitioners address methodological challenges of the state audit in the context of expanding SAI capacities.
