Topic Guide: External Audit and Oversight

Addressing fraud and corruption issues when auditing environmental and natural resource management: guidance for supreme audit institutions. INTOSAI Working Group on Environmental Auditing, June 2013. http://www.environmental-auditing.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=7/YFUCz/6Bk=&tabid=128&mid=568  

While focusing especially on audits of government programmes in the field of environmental protection and sustainable development, this resource contains a number of tools and approaches that can be applied to detect fraud and corruption in audits in all sectors. These include, for instance, an assessment of the internal control systems in place in the government organisation subject to audit, a sector-specific identification of typical corruption risks, sector-specific forms of fraud and corruption, and relevant tools to collect information.  

Supreme audit institutions accountability for development. Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit, INTOSAI, 2013. ISBN 978-3-8487-1071-3 (not available online)  

Concepts such as good governance, good financial governance and accountability have become increasingly significant in the international discussion. Supreme audit institutions are key pillars of accountability and good governance. They are important actors at the national level, as well as in the international development discourse. This volume of essays highlights the current international discussion and furnishes the reader with a wealth of information about ways in which the external audit function can contribute to good governance. It will provide the reader with fresh insights, inspiring suggestions and ideas.  

Social audits as a budget monitoring tool. IBP, 2012. http://internationalbudget.org...  

This report lays out the main elements of social audits in India and consolidates lessons from a horizontal learning exchange that took place between IBP partner organisations from India, Kenya, Mozambique, Cambodia and Indonesia. A part of the IBP's Learning from Each Other series, it lays out in a succinct format the key issues for implementing social audits for budget monitoring.  

Good practices in supporting supreme audit institutions. OECD, 2011. http://www.oecd.org/dac/effect...  

The guide describes the SAI community and how SAIs are currently working together internationally to help strengthen the capacity of members, and outlines ways donors can contribute to this process. In particular, the guide outlines recommendations on how donors can best support this process by working together to: develop and support long-term capacity development projects; ask SAIs to audit donor-supported projects; help raise the profile of the SAI; and utilise the results of SAI audits to help ensure that an SAI’s work is used to achieve beneficial change. The guide also highlights the need for development partners to build stronger links to SAIs and their key stakeholders.  

The CDF social audit guide: a handbook for communities. Open Society Institute, 2008. http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/publications/cdf-social-audit-guide-handbook-communities  

This handbook is designed to assist community groups and individuals to understand the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) process in Kenya and to provide information and skills on how to monitor these through social auditing. The social audit process involves scrutinising details of a public project at a public meeting, including the management of finances, officers responsible, record keeping, access to information, accountability, levels of public involvement, and so on. It seeks to evaluate how well public resources are being used and how to improve performance. It also aims to ensure maximum community participation.  

Financial oversight: a handbook for parliamentarians. Johnston, N., World Bank Institute, 2007. http://gopacnetwork.org/Docs/Oversight_handbook_EN.pdf  

This book suggests how parliamentarians can increase the effectiveness of their oversight function in the strengthening of parliament’s role and capacities during the preparation of the budget (ex-ante oversight), as well as for the oversight over the execution and the implementation of the budget (ex-post oversight). The guidebook points to techniques and procedures that have been successfully employed in parliaments worldwide. The book has been adapted to country-specific contexts (for Bangladesh and Arabic countries) and is available in English and Arabic.