The Pacific Association of Supreme Audit Institutions (PASAI) continues its support for public auditors in the North Pacific, to enhance their capabilities through measuring their performance. The Government of Guam’s Office of Public Accountability (OPA) and the Federated States ofMicronesia (FSM) State of Yap’s Office of the Public Auditor (Yap OPA) were assessed concurrently by two separate review teams on 15-19 May 2017.

A peer review team consisting of Ms. Atmita Jonathan, Deputy Auditor-General and Ms. Ayako Yamaguchi-Eliou, Manager for Performance Audit both from the Republic of Marshall Islands (RMI) Auditor-General’s Office and Mrs. Sinaroseta Palamo-Iosefo, PASAI’s Director of Practice Development, assessed the performance of the Government of Guam’s OPA. Ms Yukari Hechanova, Deputy Public Auditor and Ms Rodalyn Gerardo, Special Assistant facilitated the support from the OPA for the peer review team.

The performance of Yap OPA was assessed by a peer review team led by Mr Stoney Taulung, Public Auditor for Kosrae State of FSM along with Ms Emma Balagot, Audit Manager and Ms Alice George, Senior Auditor both from the Office of the Kosrae Public Auditor, and Ms Claire Kelly, PASAI consultant. Yap OPA’s support for the assessment was co-ordinated by Ms Leelkan P Southwick, Chief Investigator, Mr Bryan Y Dabugsiy, Senior Auditor and Ms Emma L Gilyan, Administrative assistant.

Assessing the performance of public auditors helps them gauge the status of their internaldevelopment purposes and enables them to demonstrate their credibility with external stakeholders. This assessment was conducted using the INTOSAI’s SAI Performance Measurement Framework (SAI PMF). The framework assesses a holistic performance of the SAI covering audit work, internal governance and ethics, relations with external stakeholders, and independence and legal framework. The peer review teams presented their preliminary assessment results to the respective PublicAuditors and staff at the completion of the week-long assessments.

As an elected government official, Ms. Doris Flores Brooks, Public Auditor for Guam, mentioned in her inaugural remarks earlier this year that she welcomed the assessment and is looking forward to the results to assist her Office in identifying areas of their operations that require improvement. During the assessment, she said she would publish the results of her Office’s performance assessment to demonstrate her commitment to strengthening accountability, transparency and integrity of government and public sector entities.

Mr Achilles Defngin, Yap Public Auditor expressed his appreciation of the assessment saying, “The Office is very grateful for the opportunity to have another similar North Pacific SAI carry out the assessment. Yap OPA wants the assessment to identify the Office’s strengths and weaknesses and highlight where we can improve”.

Guam OPA and Yap OPA are two of the six SAIs from the Northern Pacific who are participating in the second phase of the SAI PMF project in PASAI, a collaboration between the INTOSAI Development Initiatives (IDI), the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and PASAI. This series of performance measurement will culminate with all six SAIs presenting and discussing their draft performance reports during a workshop to be held in the RMI in October 2017.

The implementation of SAI PMF is aligned with one of PASAI’s strategic goals, developing SAI’s performance measurement framework to assist with improving the delivery of SAI’s audit responsibilities in order to make a difference in the lives of citizens.

The two assessments were supported by the DFAT, IDI and the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT).