Our Mandate

The National Audit Office is the Supreme Audit Institution (SAI) of The Gambia headed by an Auditor General who is responsible for auditing and reporting on how government institutions utilize public resources.  Our audit reports determine whether public funds are being used in an economic, efficient, and effective manner following our laws and other financial regulations. Our office was granted an autonomous status through the NAO Act of 2015.

This allows the National Assembly to follow up on our findings to ensure that public institutions are running smoothly to ensure transparent and accountable governance. You can visit the Frequently Asked Questions on our website for more about the work we do. 

Our work 

Across our diverse technical audit units, we conduct the prescribed public sector audits (financial, compliance, performance) on public institutions as prescribed by the 1997 Constitution of the Gambia. Public Institutions we audit include government ministries, departments and agencies, courts, the National Assembly, local government authorities, State Owned Agencies (SoEs), government and donor-funded agencies, etc. The Auditor General also outsources certain audits to private audit firms as stipulated by the NAO Act 2015. Our core audit units are:
  • Ministries & Departments
  • Extraneous  
  • Performance Audit
  • Projects & Development
  • SoEs, Forensics & Local Government Authorities 
The core audit units are supported by non-audit functions such as:
  • Quality Management
  • Human Resources
  • Communications
  • ICT
  • Training & Development
  • Internal Audit
  • Legal
  • Procurement
  • Finance
  • Research, Parliamentary Liaison & Int’l Affairs

Our strategy 

We are implementing a 5-year Strategic Development Plan 2020-2024 which sets our priorities for these five years and helps us fulfill our mission: To provide independent professional audit services to the people of The Gambia on the economic, efficient, and effective use of public resources.

The outcomes we will work toward, the outputs we will deliver, and the capacities we must therefore build were all selected with our vision in mind: To enhance accountability and transparency in the use of public resources for the benefit of the citizenry. They will help us not only deliver better audit reports but also function better as an office and as a key component in Gambia’s public financial management ecosystem.

This is our third five-year Strategic Development Plan. It was crafted by a 14-person team of NAO staff, representing a wide variety of roles and perspectives. We are implementing our strategy by working with key development partners like the INTOSAI Development Initiative, some of the key milestones we have reached include: 

  • Organizational Planning and Reporting: In 2020, we developed our first operational plan and have been having yearly and more focused plans for our audits, giving us more opportunities to be realistic with our targets 
  • Quality Assurance: In 2020, we established a Quality Assurance function combining representatives from all units in the office, to increase our credibility and ability to fulfill our mandate by providing quality reviews on our reports 
  • Communications: With a dedicated communications function, we are now able to strategically ensure that key stakeholders like the National Assembly, media, civil society, and members of the public understand and have access to our work through our website, social media, and audit reports.
  • Gender and Diversity: As a leading transparent institution, we like to reflect excellence in all levels of our work. Reaching a diverse and gender-balanced workforce will create a space for empowerment and better results.