Concluding session of the World Bank initiative on the audit capacity development: achievements and ways to follow

On April 28, the meeting room of the Court of Accounts hosted the Concluding Conference of the World Bank Initiative Mission of developing audit capacity in the field of performance audit and IT audit, conducted within the implementation of the Project of support through technical assistance for strategic development of the Court of Accounts, managed by the World Bank.

During 2009, in order to develop the audit capacity in the field of Performance audit and IT audit, the Court of Accounts received technical assistance from the IBTCI experts (James Bonnell, Michael Bitz), which included support for conducting 5 performance pilot audits and 3 IT pilot audits, for developing performance audit standards and performance audit manual. Besides, the necessary training for the teams of auditors engaged in pilot audits was provided.
                                                                                                                                                                
The conference provided an opportunity to make some balances on the achievements obtained by the auditors in conducting audits, issues and challenges encountered, lessons learned, added value and ways which should be followed to improve the audit capacity of the Court of Accounts.                                                                                                                                                           

Mrs. A. Popescu, President of the Court of Accounts mentioned in her opening speech the importance of this assistance for the development of the Court of Accounts auditors’ experience, highly appreciating the quality of the conducted audits and efficiency of the assistance provided by IBTCI experts.                                                                                                              

Mr. Jim Bonnell, a performance audit expert, said that in the course of the 5 pilot performance audits the Court of Accounts had performed an impressive volume of work, highly appreciated the auditors’ performance, impact and value added by audit findings and recommendations. In the future the Court of Accounts should pay a heightened attention to the planning performance audits focusing on the areas of major risk, but also on the areas where the value can be added, to increase the audit team leaders’ role in improvement reporting.                            

IT audit expert, Mr. Michael Bitz made some balances on pilot IT audits, noting the importance of further maintenance of this audit function within the Court of Accounts.                                        

Performance audit and IT audit will have a prominent place in the Court of Accounts activity, said Mrs. E. Foca, Vice President of the Court of Accounts, meaning that at this stage we have all necessary prerequisites: a clear mandate provided in the Law on the Court of Accounts, an effective operational independence which gives us freedom to select performance audit areas, plus, the Court of Accounts contains a performance audit department with an IT audit extension, a normative-methodological basis, etc.                                                                               

The persons attended the Conference thanked the experts for their effective assistance and contribution to the development of the Court of Accounts audit capacity.