In March 2019, when PASAI released their SAI Performance Measurement Framework (PMF) assessment of the Guam Office of Public Accountability (OPA), the SAI decided to share the results with all their stakeholders by publishing it on their website.

OPA was one of six Public Auditor’s offices taking part in a regional project – “Supporting SAI Performance Measurement” in the North Pacific region, and one of eleven SAIs involved across the whole PASAI region. The assessment was conducted by the Atmita Jonathan, Deputy Auditor General of the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI); Ayako Yamaguchi-Eliou, Performance Audit Manager of RMI, and the PASAI Director of Practice Development, Sinaroseta Palamo-Iosefo.

“The purpose of the assessment was to assist the OPA in identifying the strengths and weaknesses of its audit processes and capabilities against International Standards for Supreme Audit Institutions (ISSAIs) and other internationally established good practice…” the report’s Executive Summary stated.

The SAI PMF looked specifically into OPA’s independence and legal framework, internal governance and ethics, audit quality and reporting, financial management, assets, and support services, human resources and training, and communication with stakeholder management. With each topic, OPA was assessed and given a rating on whether the minimum international standards were met or not.

“Our office is grateful to PASAI and the regional team for conducting a thorough review of OPA’s operations and performance. We did notice a dip in our ratings between the draft submitted to OPA last year and the final report we just received, which was attributed to the quality assurance review conducted by the INTOSAI Development Initiative representative. Nevertheless, our office remains committed to addressing the areas in need of improvement, and, in fact, have already taken steps through the issuance of our Strategic Plan 2019-2023 that identifies how we planned to correct these deficiencies,” said Public Auditor Benjamin Cruz (pictured right).

PASAI Director of Practice Development, Sina Palamo-Iosefo, who is leading the SAI PMF assessment roll-out both in the region and beyond into the INTOSAI community, was thrilled by SAI Guam’s decision to publish the report on their website. She comments, ‘While we encourage SAIs to publish their reports and lead by example on being transparent and accountable, according to SAI PMF methodology, it’s up to the discretion of the Head of SAI whether to publish or not and how the report will be used and distributed. Guam OPA is leading the way with this resolute action and commitment to improvement.’

Read the report online

Download the report

For more information, please contact Vincent Duenas at 475-0390 ext. 210 or visit the website at www.opaguam.org.