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ANNOUNCEMENTS

Report on PASAI's first quarter of activities now available

PASAI has just published its first quarterly report for the 2021–22 financial year.

Through our quarterly reports, we will continue to share the progress of our work with our member SAIs, progress and development within the SAIs and impact of the work of the SAIs improving accountability and transparency across the Pacific region.

Reports will be available on our Quarterly Reports page.

Annual Report now available

PASAI’s Annual Report 2020–21 is now available to view online.

It was approved by members at PASAI’s recent Annual General Meeting pending the inclusion of some minor changes requested by the Governing Board.

The report is structured to align with PASAI’s new Performance Reporting Framework which was developed to meet external reporting requirements and comply with the new accounting standards (PBE FRS 48).

PASAI’s five Strategic Priorities continue to guide our programmes and activities and this occupies much of the report. PASAI’s financial statements for the year ending 30 June 2021 are also appended to the report.

Copies of past reports remain available on the Annual Reports page.

Revised Quality Assurance Manual now available

We have completed a review of our Quality Assurance Manual first published in 2015. It is now in line with the INTOSAI Quality Assurance and Control standards, the International Standard on Quality Control and best practice.

It contains additional information on peer reviews and how to conduct quality control over the work of sub-contractors. It distinguishes between quality assurance and quality control and also shows the steps that are required for quality assurance functions to be established.

We used a very similar version of the manual for the Quality Control and Assurance workshop in March this year. Participants can use workshop training material (accessible on our learning platform) with the new manual to help set up their own quality assurance and control arrangements within their SAIs.

We encourage our members to adopt the manual or use it as a reference point for your work.

Revised Independence Resource Kit now available

We developed our Independence Resource Kit (IRK) in 2016 for SAIs to self-assess their independence and develop and implement an independence strategy aligned with their overall independence goals and strategic plans.

We have now revised the IRK’s content and made a printable PDF version available.

Additions to the ‘Planning for independence’ section of the IRK include an editable SAI Independence Strategy template for SAIs to download and use. It contains a SWOT analysis table, a letter seeking legislative support and makes a compelling case for pursuing greater SAI independence.

There is also a Legislative reform policy paper template and Drafting instructions that a consultant used in the Solomon Islands.

The IRK’s SAI independence checklist is more comprehensive and its many links to useful legislative examples and INTOSAI pronouncements, standards and guidance are up to date now as well.

Attendees of the 23rd PASAI Congress in June will recall the Right Honourable Trevor Mallard, in the opening address, offered his support to pursue independence. You can now watch a video of this speech.

Trevor Mallard on the importance of independence of Speakers and SAIs for democracies

Strengthening SAI independence is the first of our Strategic Priorities. We look forward to working with our members to achieve this goal with the new resources available.

PASAI SECRETARIAT LOCKDOWN PERIOD DUE TO COVID-19

An important message from PASAI Chief Executive - Mr Tiofilusi Tiueti

All our countries and our people are affected by this calamity. Each of our countries has put out strict preventive measures to protect and counter the spread of the coronavirus. PASAI also acknowledge and grateful for the ongoing support from your respective organisations to Pacific countries to strengthen their internal resources to fight against this pandemic.

As you may be aware, on Tuesday, 23 March 2020, New Zealand went into alert level 3 and moving to alert level 4 in 48 hours. This means a national lockdown by today, Wednesday 24 March 2020 for four (4) weeks, and non-essential services are to work from home. The four (4) weeks lockdown could be longer so we will keep you updated as things evolve.

Because of that, the PASAI Secretariat office lockdown was effective from the close of business yesterday, Tuesday 24 March 2020. PASAI staff are now working from home and will be for the next four weeks or until the lockdown period is lifted. However, please note that we are still working as usual and accessible to any of our staff can still be made via work emails, telecon (to our mobile numbers), skype etc.  Please don’t call the office telephone number as there is no one at the office to answer your call.   

The lockdown also means that the delivery of some of our planned programs will be deferred/delayed to a future period, which we will confirm once we have some degree of certainty. Meanwhile, PASAI is taking this as an opportunity to explore innovative ways to deliver our programs, liaise with SAIs to prioritise programs, and strengthen resources in the Secretariat to be able to respond to SAI needs at times of adversity, as we are now.  

To ensure we continue planning, each of the PASAI Directors continued to liaise with the member SAIs to obtain updated information on the SAI situation in terms of ability to interact on a program especially if part of that program is to be delivered online/remotely.

We understand that it is a fluid situation and evolves rapidly day by day. However, we will continue to find ways to continue delivering programs to meet SAI needs and will come out stronger.

Should you have any queries please do not hesitate to contact me at tiofilusi.tiueti@pasai.org.

We wish that you all continue to stay safe during these uncertain times.

The PASAI Secretariat Team

25 March 2020

PASAI announces its latest Regional Report - the first cooperative compliance audit on Public Procurement

PASAI regional report:

The first cooperative compliance audit, on
Public Procurement

PASAI is very proud to present our report on the results of the first cooperative compliance audit on Public Procurement.

The audit was a joint initiative between PASAI and the INTOSAI Development Initiative (IDI). Lead by PASAI’s Director of Technical Support, A’eau Agnes Aruwafu and Mr. Shofiqul Islam, IDI’s Manager of Capacity Development, PASAI’s team of facilitators included two officers from Audit NZ, one auditor each from SAI Cook Islands, Samoa, Norway and Maldives, and PASAI’s Director of Practice Development, Sinaroseta Palamo-Iosefo who helped with design, planning and quality reviews. The whole team met in Oslo to design the program followed by a two-week planning workshop in Auckland, NZ, in 2015, and another week of reporting in Samoa, in Dec 2016. Quality assurance of the reports was done in Dec 2017, with the SAIs’ reports being made public for most in 2018.

It was a long-term yet very successful activity, and this report highlights not only the results of the audits themselves, but also the lessons learnt in being the first region to carry out a cooperative compliance audit, on this particular topic.

This report sits in the PASAI suite of information-sharing regional reports as PASAI continues to support its SAIs as Learning and Knowledge organisation (and we’ll soon be following up with a regional report on the cooperative performance audit of preparedness for implementation of the SDGs). We’re very pleased to share the report in both flipbook format and standard PDF download.

This report is also a first in another way. In the Pacific tradition of story-telling, PASAI’s SAIs have provided longer narratives that go beyond the audit results and share a fuller picture of the whole activity and impact on the SAI, the audited entity and the citizens of their country.

PASAI thanks IDI, its other development partners, the team of facilitators and especially the SAIs who took part, for their huge involvement in this cooperative audit and support for this report.

For more information, please contact PASAI’s Communications Advisor on jill.marshall@pasai.org.