Events

NAO Engages Public Institutions on Audit Service Delivery Challenges and the Recurring Audit findings

February 23, 24 and 25, 2023

From February 23 to 25, 2023, the National Audit Office held three different forums  with some of the public institutions that it audits to interact on the audit exercise challenges, the recurring audit findings as well as recommendations with a view to reduce audit findings and improve on the implementation of the audit recommendation to enhance service delivery.

The event brought together permanent secretaries, board chairpersons, executive directors, chairpersons and chief executive officers of local councils, as well as senior officials from more than 60 institutions from government ministries, departments, subvented agencies (including public hospitals), local government and projects to interact with the NAO’s Auditor General and his team. Other key stakeholders also included the Finance and Public Accounts Committee (FPAC) of the National Assembly, Accountant General’s Department, Internal Audit Directorate as well as the Gambia Public Procurement Authority (GPPA).

In his opening remarks to each respective group, AG Ceesay emphasized on the importance of the event especially to hear feedback from the auditees on how the audit service delivery can be improved for better public finance management. He also made emphasis on the challenges around the recurring audit findings which he said is evident on majority of the audit reports.

The workshop included presentations on salient topics by the NAO team such as the mandate of the NAO as prescribed by the 1997 Constitution of The Gambia, the types of audits conducted, the standards used for public sector audits, interpretation of the different audit opinions, as well as an overview of the INTOSAI P12 standard on the value and benefits of Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs).  Other presentations included on the roles and responsibilities of the auditor and auditee as defined by INTOSAI and a review of the expectation gap – to demystify the myths surrounding what the public thinks and expects as the role and responsibilities of public auditors.  

Below is the summary of the key topics as shared by the NAO as well as from the auditees during the deliberations and groups exercises.

Challenges and recurring audit findings presented by NAO:

• Late submission of financial statements as well as the submission of incomplete financial statements
• Lack of access to documentation/information; as well as unavailability of top management of auditees
• Late response to the management letter and in some cases poor coordination of the responses
• Poor culture of management acting on the audit recommendations

Recurring audit findings

On the recurring audit findings, NAO shared the following key findings:

• Poor oversight role of those charged with Governance (e.g. board members not sitting regularly, non-presentation of approved budgets)
• Lack of a clear reporting framework
• Non -compliance with GPPA guidelines
• Breaching the Public Finance Act 2014/Financial Regulations  2016
• Unretired imprests/unaccounted revenues
• Poor internal control systems (e.g. lack of integrated data management systems, etc)

The event also allowed participants to work in groups to highlight challenges they face internally with regards to the audit as well as with the NAO in the audit engagement. Summary of the challenges include:

• Misunderstanding between approved budget and allocation from line ministries for agencies
• Short notice of deadline for management response to queries
• Lack of updates on final reports after management response
• Not understanding the nature mandates of the auditees
• Communication bottlenecks during the audit process
• Capacity on both sides
• Differences in interpretation of acts/ existing laws
• The use of choice of words in reports/ language ambiguity

Recommendations

On the way forward, NAO will explore more engagements and sensitization with auditees to improve on the challenges including the access to documentation/information. On the part of the auditees, they request for:

• NAO to conduct more performance auditing in parallel with financial auditing
• For there to be harmonization of accounting standards
• Review of the existing legal instruments are some are ancient and with inconsistencies
• NAO to hold more regular engagements with auditees and to consider doing by sector so that the conversations can be sector-specific.
• Officials of public institutions to familiarize themselves with their institutions Acts and other legal documents

In conclusion, the FPAC also shared that on their part, their oversight on the audit reports will be enhanced, and that in the upcoming first ordinary session for 2023, majority of the committee’s report the plenary will include the recurring audit findings.

On the part of the NAO, the two DAGs in their closing remarks reminded the participants that the ultimate objective of the event is to ensure that going forward, audit will be seen more as a value-addition exercise and not a fault-finding exercise.