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Regional report on audit issues now available

The Analysis of audit issues and recommendations for 20 PASAI members 2022 regional report examines the main issues these SAIs raised in their three most recent years of financial statements of government audit reports.

It also examines management letters or internal control recommendations, and is supported by reference to SAI Performance Measurement Framework (PMF) and Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) reports where available.

The questions examined are:

  • What are the issues reported by SAIs?

  • What is the significance and impact of those issues on government operations and public sector financial management?

Taking into account those issues, the report develops eight proposals and a reporting model.

 
 

New director to join Secretariat

Auckland, New Zealand: The Pacific Association of Supreme Audit Institutions (PASAI) will welcome a technical auditing and accounting professional with more than 15 years of auditing, training, and consulting experience, Sagar Adhau, to its Auckland-based Secretariat team.

From 9 January 2023 Mr Adhau will be PASAI’s Director Programmes, focusing on having member audit offices in the Pacific deliver high-quality audits on a timely basis.

 

Sagar Adhau

 

Mr Adhau is currently working as a Technical Auditing and Accounting Manager with the Office of the Auditor-General, New Zealand.

In this role he provides advice on auditing, accounting and reporting queries, monitors the independence of auditors and prepares and reviews non-standard audit reports.

He also provides technical support and develops guidance and policies for internal and external stakeholders working on auditing, accounting, climate change and financial reporting matters.

Mr Adhau has previously worked in assurance service with Deloitte (India) and PwC (Dubai) and as technical consultant with Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand. He has also worked as a freelance trainer with the International Security and Development Center, Get Through Guides, Kaplan Professional (Dubai) and other training providers.

He is a Fellow Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and a Chartered Accountant with the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

PASAI Chief Executive, Esther Lameko-Poutoa, looks forward to having Mr Adhau join the Secretariat staff.

“Sagar’s breadth of international auditing and training experience make him ideally suited to helping our members improve the quality of their public sector audits to recognised standards,” she said.

PASAI acknowledges the support of the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) and the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).

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Contact information:

Esther Lameko-Poutoa, Chief Executive PASAI, Auckland, New Zealand
E: secretariat@pasai.org P: +64 9 304 1275

PDF version of this media release

LOTA Pioneers Open House

The INTOSAI Development Initiative (IDI) recently launched its Leveraging on Technological Advancements (LOTA) Pioneers initiative. This initiative aims to transform a pool of SAI auditors into change agents who bring technology to a SAI’s audit world.

SAIs should have received an invitation to the Open House Webinar to learn more about the LOTA Pioneers Initiative, its objectives and approach. The session will also provide a chance to ask questions.

Please register to join the session on Wednesday 30 November 2022 at 20:00 New Zealand time (GMT +13) or register to join the session on Friday 2 December 2022 at 04:00 New Zealand time (GMT +13).

If you have any questions about the initiative, you can email antons.ponomarjovs@idi.no.

PASAI 32nd Governing Board meeting

Auckland, New Zealand: The Pacific Association of Supreme Audit Institutions (PASAI) held its 32nd Governing Board meeting on 24 November 2022.

Sairusi Dukuno, Acting Auditor-General of Fiji and Chair of the PASAI Governing Board, chaired the meeting attended online by John Ryan, Secretary-General PASAI and Auditor-General of New Zealand.

Esther Lameko-Poutoa, Chief Executive PASAI, and most other members, staff and partners were able to attend the meeting in person for the first time in nearly three years. Senior staff from the Swedish National Audit Office observed the meeting having spent the previous eight days collaborating with PASAI to develop a Human Resources Champions programme for Pacific Islands SAIs.

Attendees of PASAI’s 32nd Governing Board meeting gather outside the conference venue

Ms Lameko-Poutoa provided an overview of the Secretariat’s work during the first four months of the 2022–23  financial year. Her report included:

  • SAI independence advocacy meetings in Nauru and Solomon Islands,

  • stakeholder engagement strategies and implementation plans developed for SAIs in the Federated States of Micronesia and Solomon Islands,

  • an update of the financial statements of government audits in the region, support for ISSAI compliance,

  • delivery of strategic audit planning and financial reporting/accounting workshops, and

  • technical assistance to design and implement strategic plans and performance monitoring systems for four member SAIs.

The Governing Board endorsed the revisions proposed for 10 of PASAI’s policies that had become due for a review.

Members had a fruitful evaluation session with a facilitator from the Institute of Directors and gathered again the next day with Secretariat staff to commence work on developing PASAI’s next Strategic Plan, set to start in mid-2024.

The Secretariat expresses its gratitude to the Governing Board members for their ongoing assistance and acknowledges its development partners for their continued support of PASAI and its work in the region.

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Contact information:

Esther Lameko-Poutoa, Chief Executive PASAI, Auckland, New Zealand
E: secretariat@pasai.org P: +64 9 304 1275

PDF version of this media release

IT security a priority for national, state and territorial audit offices in the Pacific

Auckland, New Zealand: The Pacific Association of Supreme Audit Institutions (PASAI) is providing national, state and territorial audit offices (SAIs) with an essential foundation for safe information technology (IT) operations.

SAIs play an important role in the management of public finances in their jurisdictions and require strong IT policies, processes and standards to ensure the security of their information.

As part of this programme, PASAI is making a comprehensive package of 14 IT policies available to all of its member SAIs in the Melanesian, Micronesian and Polynesian sub-regions. They include guidelines on asset management, operational security and cloud use.

To provide practical advice around implementing these policies, PASAI, supported by cyber security service providers InPhySec, will deliver three online regional workshops.

Twenty-seven participants (13 female, 14 male) from 11 SAIs (in the Cook Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) National, FSM Yap State, Fiji, Guam, Kiribati, Palau, the Marshall Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu) will participate in the workshops which start today.

Last year, to better understand the challenges for SAIs in the region, PASAI did a comprehensive IT needs assessment of Pacific Island SAIs. It identified several areas where improvements could be made to strengthen IT systems in the region. This programme addresses one of the primary recommendations to come out of that assessment.

Senior Advisor at the Office of the Secretary-General of PASAI, Nicole Ayo von Thun, explained that PASAI’s Learning Platform offers pre-course reading, post course FAQs and the opportunity to have ongoing dialogue with the workshop facilitators.

“The training will include best practice guidance, the chance to engage with cyber security professionals and the ability to share experiences with other participants,” she said.

Aimed at those who have responsibility for IT and physical security, their supervisors and key decision makers at the SAI, the training will enable staff to implement the policies, processes and standards into their individual operating environments.

PASAI acknowledges the support of the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) and the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).

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Contact information:

Nicole Ayo von Thun, Senior Advisor Office of the Auditor-General, New Zealand
E: Nicole.AyovonThun@oag.parliament.nz P: +64 21 222 6302

PDF version of this media release

SAI PMF Regional Report now available

A new report summarises the results of SAI Performance Measurement Framework (PMF) assessments of all 20 government audit offices that are beneficiaries of our programmes.

The SAI PMF Regional Report 2022 is a significant milestone being the first regional report on SAI performance for any INTOSAI region. Making the report publicly available demonstrates our commitment to transparency, accountability and good governance.

In addition to summarising the PMF assessments of all participating Pacific Island SAIs, the report includes:

  • analysis at regional, sub-regional and income levels

  • connections to our Strategic Priorities and

  • recommendations for future support and capability development.

The report represents the enormous amount of work and cooperation involved in completing these comprehensive assessments across our vast region. The individual assessments have already yielded much fruit, informing customised SAI workplans and establishing a baseline against which we can demonstrate improvement.

 
 

INTOSAI WGEA training on SDGs – waste management

SAI Indonesia in collaboration with the INTOSAI Working Group on Environmental Auditing (WGEA) invites auditors to its online training on Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs) with the topic of waste management from 14 to 25 November 2022. 

This training would be especially useful for SAIs planning a waste management audit or who want to find out more about how to link an environmental audit to the SDGs.

Participants must register online by this Friday 4 November 2022.

For any enquiries please contact Pacific RWGEA Coordinator, Jonathan Keate, on Jonathan.Keate@oag.parliament.nz.

University partnership to build government financial audit capabilities in the Pacific

Auckland, New Zealand: The Pacific Association of Supreme Audit Institutions (PASAI) is collaborating with the University of the South Pacific (USP) to deliver a series of online workshops on accounting and reporting standards for government auditors, starting today.

Twenty participants (16 female, four male) from seven government audit offices (in the Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Tuvalu)  will participate in seven online workshops on the International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) and the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

The training aims to bring staff at public audit offices up to date with IPSAS and their applications to the government financial reporting framework.

The sessions will include discussions on the standards as well as practical exercises and case studies to illustrate their application. Additionally, consultation sessions of up to two hours will be available to each participating audit office on a needs basis throughout the workshop series which runs until 7 December 2022.

The facilitation team includes PASAI’s Director (South Pacific), Meresimani Vosawale-Katuba, and from the USP’s School of Accounting, Finance and Economics, Dr Nacanieli Rika, Dr Folototo Seve, Dr Ilimotama Cawi and Professor Arvind Patel.

On an intended training outcome, Ms Vosawale-Katuba said, “When SAI staff conduct audits in accordance with international financial and auditing standards that helps to support the government in its decision-making through reliable and transparent financial reporting.”

Building the capacity of its member SAIs to effectively audit financial statements is fundamental to PASAI’s overarching goal of improving accountability and governance in the Pacific region.

PASAI acknowledges the support of the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) and the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).

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Contact information:

Meresimani Vosawale-Katuba, Director – South PASAI
E: Meresimani.VosawaleKatuba@pasai.org P: +64 9 304 1275

PDF version of this media release

Course aims to enhance strategic audit coverage of government sectors in the Pacific

Auckland, New Zealand: The Pacific Association of Supreme Audit Institutions (PASAI) is aiming to improve the quality and effectiveness of audits Pacific Island SAIs conduct with government audit staff training that starts today.

The course on the strategic planning of compliance and performance audits will provide auditors with the tools and techniques to identify, prioritise and select audit topics with a strategic and systematic approach while considering all sectors, areas of risk in government and matters of public interest.

PASAI Chief Executive, Esther Lameko-Poutoa, opened the workshop reminding participants that, “The effectiveness of a SAI in holding government to account in its use of public finances depends on the quality of the audit.

“The SAI must work in partnership with Parliament and the executive government and make use of audit findings and recommendations to influence positive change.”

Thirty-four participants (18 female, 16 male) from 10 government audit offices (in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) National, FSM Chuuk, FSM Kosrae, FSM Yap, Fiji, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Papua New Guinea, Samoa and Tuvalu) will participate in four, part-day online workshops held on 5, 6 and 12 October and 1 November 2022.

Independent assessments of 20 SAIs in the region revealed many of them have not considered a wide variety of issues or sectors when selecting audit topics for compliance and performance audits.

Sinaroseta Palamo-Iosefo (Director – Practice Development, PASAI) and Meresimani Vosawale-Katuba (Director – South, PASAI) will facilitate the workshops. Doris Flores Brooks (Director – North, PASAI), will moderate a panel discussion of experts sharing insights into selecting audit topics and planning work.

Ms Palamo-Iosefo explained, “A SAI should have a process for selecting audit topics in a meaningful manner, enabling it to focus audits on significant issues and cover the various sectors in government operations.

“In this way, a SAI can prioritise resources and report findings on areas that are relevant to the country and of interest to the public.”

This capacity development course is spread over a month so participants can practise, document and present their processes for feedback.

PASAI acknowledges the support of the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) and the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).

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Contact information:

Sinaroseta Palamo-Iosefo, Director Practice Development PASAI, Auckland, New Zealand
E: sina.iosefo@pasai.org P: +64 9 304 1275

PDF version of this media release

Annual Report now available

The PASAI Annual Report 2021–22 was approved by members at PASAI’s Annual General Meeting on 23 September 2022.

We report on our progress using our Performance Reporting Framework which has been developed to meet our external reporting requirements (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 2022 are also appended to the report.

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

PASAI 31st Governing Board meeting

Auckland, New Zealand: The Pacific Association of Supreme Audit Institutions (PASAI) held its 31st Governing Board meeting online on 23 September 2022.

Sairusi Dukuno, Acting Auditor-General of Fiji and Chair of the PASAI Governing Board, chaired the meeting also attended by John Ryan, Secretary-General PASAI and Auditor-General of New Zealand, and Esther Lameko-Poutoa, Chief Executive PASAI, among other members and staff.

Ms Lameko-Poutoa provided an overview of the Secretariat’s work during July and August 2022 aligned to its five Strategic Priorities.

Her report included:

  • SAI independence strategy planning with SAIs,

  • stakeholder engagement toolkit release among related workshop for staff at 10 SAIs,

  • continued consultant support to complete the Financial Statements of Government audits of two SAIs while working with the remaining issues,

  • completion of the first phase of this financial year’s leadership programme for SAI heads and senior staff, and

  • technical assistance to design and implement strategic plans and performance monitoring systems for four SAIs.

The Governing Board endorsed the Annual Report and Financial Statements for presentation at the Annual General Meeting of PASAI Incorporated, held later that day.

Agenda items also included endorsement of a project plan to develop PASAI’s next Strategic Plan, with work beginning at the Governing Board’s next meeting set for 24 and 25 November 2022.

The Secretariat expresses its gratitude to the Governing Board members for their ongoing assistance and acknowledges our development partners for their continued support of PASAI and its work in the region.

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Contact information:

Esther Lameko-Poutoa, Chief Executive PASAI, Auckland, New Zealand
E: secretariat@pasai.org P: +64 9 304 1275

PDF version of this media release

PASAI bids a fond farewell to Tiofilusi Tiueti

Auckland, New Zealand: The Pacific Association of Supreme Audit Institutions (PASAI) is announcing the imminent departure of a well-respected member of the Secretariat, Tiofilusi Tiueti, who leaves his role to become the Minister of Finance for the Government of Tonga.

Mr Tiueti’s final day coincides with the next meeting of the PASAI Governing Board on Friday 23 September 2022.

Having joined the Secretariat as its Chief Executive in 2015, Mr Tiueti led the development of the new BLUE (Build, Liaise, Undertake, Evaluate) SAI delivery approach and the signing of new funding agreements positioning PASAI to move forward with certainty. More recently, Mr Tiueti has served as PASAI’s Director – Technical Support.

PASAI Chief Executive, Esther Lameko-Poutoa, reflected on Mr Tiueti’s contribution saying, “Tio has been a tireless advocate for effective public finance management, SAI independence and audit quality on regional and international stages.”

Mr Tiueti said it has been a great honour to make a difference for SAIs in the Pacific, adding, “The experience gained from PASAI and in working with INTOSAI regions and global bodies have prepared me well for my next endeavour.”

PASAI congratulates Mr Tiueti and wishes him all the success in his new role and future ventures. May he remain an asset to his country and the Pacific region.

Tiofilusi Tiueti

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Contact information:

Esther Lameko-Poutoa, Chief Executive PASAI, Auckland, New Zealand
E: secretariat@pasai.org P: +64 9 304 1275

PDF version of this media release

SAI Chuuk releases final audit on State Election Commission

24 August 2022

Weno: Chuuk: The Office of the Chuuk State Public Auditor (OCPA) releases its final audit on the Chuuk State Election Commission entitled “Chuuk State Election Commission: Inadequate Compliance with the Financial Management Regulations and Needing Improvement in the Conduct of Election.”

This is to announce that we have completed the performance audit on the Chuuk State Election Commission covering fiscal years 2017 to 2021. The audit primarily focused on compliance with financial management regulations and determination whether the commission was strategically managing its operations. The audit report presents the findings and recommendations, which audit was conducted in accordance with the US Generally Accepted Government Auditing Standards (GAGAS).

Based on the audit, we summarize the following issues that the management should address:

  1. Inefficiency in handling overseas and Chuuk Islands voting resulting to incurring significant expenses for travel and fuel in every election.

  2. Compliance in internal control procedures for monitoring the appropriated budget, requiring the acknowledgement of payment checks by the recipients, managing and maintaining fixed assets records for monitoring and accountability, and improving record filing, management and retention.

  3. Development and implementation of a Strategic Plan that would provide clarity, long-term direction and focus activities toward protecting voters’ rights, efficient election and ensuring/safeguarding free and fair election.

Printed copies of the Report 2022-01 are available at the OCPA located in Weno, Chuuk State. You can also view and download copies through the “Office of the Chuuk State Public Auditor” Facebook group.

PDF of OCPA Press Release #2022-01