The 10th meeting of the KSC Steering Committee was held in Kampala Uganda from 20th to 22nd August 2018. The meeting was attended by representatives from the SAIs of Uganda, India, France, Indonesia, Philippines, China, and the INTOSAI Development Initiative (IDI), INTOSAI General Secretariat and Professional Standards Committee (PSC). The purpose of the meeting was to receive reports on the activities of the Working Groups (WG) and chart a way forward. The key messages from the meeting included:
- WG should embrace the INTOSAI Community Portal
- SAIs should focus on audit of SDGs
- The Quality Assurance process for all Non-IFPP products should be adhered to
- WG need to devise mechanisms of engaging more with the INTOSAI regions
INTOSAI Community Portal
The INTOSAI Community Portal is an initiative of the KSC and IDI designed to provide a single online point of access to the KSC and all its Working Groups. Once work is completed, all WG will be required to migrate their websites to the Portal; each WG will have its own page. Users of the Portal will be able to request video conferences, write blogs, participate in a Community of Practice, post exposure drafts and events in the calendar, among others.
Administration of the Portal will be the responsibility of the KSC, while the WG will update the content on their pages, and the IDI will be in charge of outreach support. The Portal is currently in the testing phase. WG and SAIs are encouraged to use the webinar and video conferencing facilities of the Portal.
WGEI is working closely with the KSC Secretariat to ensure that its website is ready for migration to the Portal.
Audit of SDGs
Cross-cutting priority 2 of the INTOSAI SP 2017-2022 requires SAIs to contribute ‘to the follow-up and review of the SDGs within the context of each nation’s specific sustainable development efforts and SAIs’ individual mandates.’ SAIs can play their part by undertaking high quality audits of the implementation of SDGs by their governments and thereby contribute to value and benefits for citizens.
A number of WG are incorporating audit of SDGs in their activities. IDI together with KSC are running a Programme aimed at supporting SAIs to conduct high quality audits of SDGs. The WGEI through an initiative led by the SAIs of South Africa and Zambia is promoting consideration of SDGs in the audit of Extractive Industries. WGEI will monitor the success of the initiative by collecting data and information, assessing the pace of implementation and measuring the milestones achieved. All members are called upon to support the initiative and provide relevant information to the Secretariat and the SAIs of South Africa and Zambia.
Quality Assurance process for Non-IFPP products
The 3 Goal Chairs (KSC, CBC and PSC) issued a Joint Paper on Quality Assurance for Non-IFPP Documents which is applicable to all documents developed on or after December 2017. The process provides for 3 levels of quality assurance namely: level 1 where the document undergoes a process similar to IFFP documents, level 2 which involves eternal stakeholders and level 3 where the process is limited to the WG.
The process requires:
- All documents to contain a Statement of Quality Assurance,
- The Goal Chair to sign a Quality Assurance Statement,
- The WG Chair to sign a Quality Assurance Statement,
- Documents to include a revision/expiry clause, and
- All documents to have an annex outlining the quality assurance measures taken.
This development is very relevant to WGEI since it is currently working on a number of Non-IFFP products. All efforts will be made to comply with the Quality Assurance Process.
Engaging with the INTOSAI regions
The INTOSAI regional organisations are very active within their respective regions and as such have close working relationships with their member SAIs. Through discussion the KSC Steering Committee concluded that the KSC and WG would be able to reach out to a large number of SAIs if they engaged more with the INTOSAI regional organisations. Greater outreach to the SAIs could result in:
- The WG and the KSC serving SAIs better
- Widespread utilisation of WG products among SAIs
- Improvement in sharing of information and knowledge on audit
WGEI has members from all the INTOSAI regions and would benefit from strengthening its relationship with the regions. While the Steering Committee is making efforts to reach out to the regional organisations, all members are encouraged to promote WGEI and its activities within their regions.
The key messages from the 10th KSC Steering Committee meeting were discussed at the annual WGEI Steering Committee meeting, and it was resolved that efforts will be made to incorporate them into WGEI activities.