Author Topic: Audit Committees in the Public Sector: an article by Hepworth and de Koning  (Read 190 times)

Robert de Koning

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Dear friends, dear colleagues,
 
As many of you already know, we have recently written a paper on the topic of Audit Committees in the public sector. In this paper we explain the various efforts made by national governments inside and outside the European Union to create organisations that aim to help both management and the internal audit profession in making the public sector more economic, efficient and effective, so that they may contribute to the transparency of our civil administrations and hence to a more democratic society.
We also analyse in detail the characteristics of many of these efforts and the conditions under which we think they could become successful in the long term.

At the same time we warn against going too hastily down the track of creating audit committees unless appropriate conditions exist and not the least of these is the availability of an independent membership coupled with a willingness of politicians, in particular, to listen to and accept advice that may inhibit them in the pursuit of their immediate objectives. Without that independent membership we feel that there is a real risk that ineffectual audit committees will result in the creation of an ‘illusion’ of an improvement in corporate governance when the reality is that the reform is purely cosmetic.

As of yet there are no international public sector standards in the area of public sector Audit Committees. There is also very little or no literature available. To fill this gap and without expressing ourselves on the desirability of and the need for such standards, our aim is to start an open discussion on this issue. We are still in the process of finding a proper publication channel that could support such a discussion. However, since our article has already been circulating amongst several of our colleagues, we think it is time now to give it a wider distribution. The article can be found on the website www.pifc.eu, (under discussion papers) where you will be invited to provide your comments should you deem this useful.

We hope that this discussion paper will help policy makers in both the national and international administrations develop a better appreciation of the nature of public sector audit committees, the types that can be useful in different circumstances as well as the pros and cons of this reform and better understand and apply the criteria for making these bodies successful in the long term.

Best regards,

Noel Hepworth
Robert de Koning
« Last Edit: November 16, 2012, 17:51:32 GMT by Napodano »

atseacliff

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Re: Audit Committees in the Public Sector: an article by Hepworth and de Koning
« Reply #1 on: November 22, 2012, 15:36:35 GMT »
Noel, Robert
I'm sure the central conclusion on timing and sequencing of ACs is correct.  I'm just back from an African country which, some years ago required MDAs to establish Audit Report Implementation Committees (ARICs), comprising senior MDA management and independent "experts" drawn from the accounting and audit profession.  So far so good however its pretty clear that implementation is extremely patchy, meetings infrequent (regulations say they should meet quarterly). In addition there is little evidence from AG reports that the implementation of recommendations has improved.  I can at least speculate as to the reasons for the slow takeup. Firstly the country has deep seated problems of a fragmented budget, weak commitment controls and unpredictable budget releases which dilute the accountability of budget holders as envisaged in the financial administration regulatioons.  Secondly the focus of both internal and external audit on pre-audit work and transactions/compliance issues at the expense of systemic/useful recommendations is also likely to have an impact on the usefulness of ARICs as a agent of change (garbage in/garbage out).  Finally the pool of independent expertise willing or able to contibute to improvements in PFM systems is extremely limited.   

 

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